True Love

True Love series filmed in Thanet town, and stars David Morrissey, Jane Horrocks, Ashley Walters and Billie Piper

Famed artist Tracey Emin helped persuade one of Britain’s best dramatists to write a series of love stories set in the town where they both grew up - Margate.

Bafta winner Dominic Savage is both writer and director, though the True Love series of dramas - which run on BBC One from between June 18-22 - features a large amount of improvisation by the actors.

Savage said: “It’s been burning inside me for a long time and I thought that if I didn’t do it now, I probably never would. A series of love stories in a place that I consider to be romantic. It felt absolutely right.”

And the series boasts a star-studded cast, including David Tennant, David Morrissey, Jane Horrocks, Ashley Walters and Billie Piper.

Margate may have been an obvious location for Savage, but it was the enthusiasm from artist Emin that sealed the deal after they met at the opening of Turner Contemporary.

He said: “She was incredibly emotional about the place, as was I, and she said, ‘You’ve got to make a film here, Dominic, you’ve just got to.’ I thought, ‘Yes, this is it!’ It was clear I had to do it.”

Refusing to make life simple, Savage said he decided to film without a proper script – just 10 pages of notes for the 30-minute episodes.

He said he uses the method because he believes it makes the actors more real, creating a drama that makes a better connection with an audience.

He said it doesn’t work every time, but he can then “do it again and again”.

Savage said: “I always wanted each of the films to encapsulate love in a completely truthful and visceral way. With love stories, the films that really work are the ones where you completely believe it – but so few do that.”