'Save Me Too': Did Lennie James' foster care years influence his Sky Atlantic show? Here's the actor's story
If you switch on NBCU's streaming site, you might see Lennie James sporting a yellow jacket staring anxiously towards you. You might recognize the face of the British actor from his performance as Morgan Jones on AMC's flagship post-apocalyptic series' 'The Walking Dead' and 'Fear the Walking Dead' and for playing Mister Cotton on the critically-acclaimed neo-noir science fiction film 'Blade Runner 2049'.
Or if you're not into zombie horror or thrillers, you might remember his face from Guy Ritchie's 2000 crime comedy 'Snatch'. However, the character that he plays on Sky Atlantic original 'Save Me' is nowhere close to these popular performances. Serving also as the creator/writer, James was nominated for the BAFTA Television Craft Award for a writer for drama and won the Royal Television Society, UK 2019 Award for Best Writer - Drama.
Set in the backdrop of working-class, inner-city London, the series follows Nelly, played by James, "a down-and-out, sofa surfing womaniser" who finds his world upended overnight when cops arrive at his doorstep to arrest him on suspicion of kidnapping a daughter, Jody McGory (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), he fathered 13 years ago. Suddenly, he is thrust into the dark underbelly of London where no one is safe and especially not young girls.
What follows is a man's desperate quest to find out what happened to his daughter. The story is nestled at the crossroads of kidnapping, human trafficking and abuse. The crime thriller is a chilling insight into happens behind closed doors of seemingly harmless men. But above all, it is a story of redemption.
"[Kidnapping and Trafficking] aren't really the themes that drew me to the story," he had told MEAWW during an exclusive interview in 2018. "I had a phone call asking me whether or not I had an idea for a television series and this one kind of just popped into my head. It was very much a desire to write a thriller and, as with most of the themes I write, I wanted to pen a story of redemption."
"The other themes of the missing child and exploration of places that Nelly's search for Jody takes him just came in with the storytelling," he continued. "It wasn't so much that I wanted to write about trafficking and exploitation of children. It was more of wanting to write a thriller and I wanted to set it in a real place with real themes and a realistic lead character with all of his flaws, who goes on a real journey to find things about himself that he didn't know when he started off."
And now, returning for Season 2 titled 'Save Me Too', Nelly is in for unlike anything he has seen before. It has been 17 months since Jody went missing but his quest for her is still going on. As a result of this, he has put his own relationships and his life on the line. Nelly wasn't the best of fathers around. In fact, Jody didn't even live with him. She lived with her mother Claire McGory (Suranne Jones) and stepfather Barry (Barry Ward).
When he is thrust into this situation, he takes it upon himself to find Jody and, in a way, seek redemption for the father he has not been all these years. Outside of this relationship, Nelly hasn't been the best of persons — or even a good or average person, like his girlfriend Teens (Kerry Godliman) would call him a "sh*thead". Now on the path to look for Jody, Nelly is also confronted with his own reality, again, seeking redemption.
The synopsis also teases that "new potential suspects are revealed and long-buried secrets unearthed as Nelly is torn between protecting Grace, the young woman he found in a caravan park and continuing his mission to find Jody."
Nelly's compelling character is written and acted out by James to perfection. It could be said that the inspiration behind this womaniser who lives life without a shed of conscience comes from some of James' own experiences with the foster system. He and his brother had spent eight years in foster care after the death of their mother when he was 10.
And the key lies in the location where the story is set — London. "I always write about London and it's the first place where my story is set because it's my hometown," he had told us.
"It's not by accident that I set 'Save Me' in London. Our main location is three miles square of Southeast London and I found, very strangely, that you can tell a universal story by being very specific about the location. That area of Southeast London in the housing estate and those people in the pub are as important to the story as any of the characters or what happens to them."
He continued on how these previous projects inspired him. "At one level, 'Save Me' happened because the head of drama was a big fan of 'Storm Damage'. So, when she phoned my agent asking me whether I had an idea, it was because she wanted me writing again and was a fan of my previous work. So, I suppose it helped that way. But 'Storm Damage' was a one-off 92-minute film for the BBC and 'Save Me' is six hours of television, so it's a very different writing experience."
The actor and writer previously wrote the autobiographical TV film 'Storm Damage' in 2000 about a teacher who tries to go back to the foster home he left and help the teenagers there, as James did. The movie was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series.
Nelly, in spite of his flaws, is a charmer. There's something about him that reels you in and gets you on side. You want him to succeed, but will he? 'Save Me Too' is scheduled to premiere on Peacock on Thursday, November 5, 2020. Season 1 is currently streaming on Peacock.