Why Did Bog Boys Become a Stage Play?
Updated: Aug 15
A conversation with writer-producer Mark Anthony.
Nidd Films is primarily associated with film. Why did you want Bog Boys to begin as a stage play?
Mark Anthony: I wanted to return to my roots in storytelling and create this story first in a live setting. There is a sense of the real about Bog Boys that belongs on stage, close to a live audience.
I have also written multimedia elements into the play. That is something I first explored at university in Devon in 1994. The interaction between live performance and recorded footage has always excited me. I suspect some of that fascination goes back to seeing U2’s Zoo TV Tour in the 1990s and the way it brought together performance, screens, sound and image.
You say the play has a live quality. What do you mean by that?
Mark Anthony: Without giving too much away, there is a dynamic within the play that needs a live audience.
We explore two central characters whose lives have changed dramatically. The immediacy of that change needs to be experienced in front of you, in the same room, as events unfold.
Theatre creates an energy between performer and audience that cannot be recreated in quite the same way on screen. To tell this story entirely through cinema would, I think, lose some of the rawness and immediacy the play needs.
You mentioned U2. Were there other influences that helped shape the work?
Mark Anthony: More than I could probably mention.
History and archaeology sit at the heart of this play, as they do in much of my work. I believe both are fundamental to understanding who we are and where we come from, yet they remain surprisingly underused in drama.
When archaeology appears on screen, it often becomes spectacle through films such as Indiana Jones or Jurassic Park. Those are wonderful adventures, but there are comparatively few stories exploring archaeology as lived experience: the people who uncover the past, the communities connected to it and the way a single discovery can completely change how we understand a place.
We have no shortage of police dramas, but far fewer stories about archaeology, local history and the landscapes beneath our feet. That interests me enormously.
So, is Bog Boys primarily about archaeology?
Mark Anthony: Archaeology is one of its foundations, but fundamentally it is a story about people—and about what happens when their lives become a story for everyone else.
The play brings together archaeology, folklore, local history, humour and the strange myths communities create about themselves. It asks how stories begin, how they grow, who gets to shape them and how easily repetition can make something appear to be the truth.
The media relationship is an important part of that. A discovery can create excitement and opportunity, but once the attention begins, the people at its centre can lose control of their own story. Public curiosity can become judgement, and a human being can quickly be reduced to an image, a rumour or a headline.
Above all, I want audiences to laugh. But beneath the comedy are questions about masculinity, vulnerability, public scrutiny and our responsibility towards the people behind the stories we consume.
Could Bog Boys develop beyond the stage in the future?
Mark Anthony: Potentially, yes.
I think it lends itself more naturally to television than to a single feature film because the concept has the potential to evolve beyond one place and one contained story.
The stage play introduces the audience to the world and its characters, but I can imagine a continuing narrative in which archaeology, folklore and forgotten histories lead the characters into new places and new discoveries.
For now, though, theatre feels like the right place to begin. It gives the story the rawness, immediacy and shared audience experience it deserves, while leaving open the possibility of a wider television world in the future.
What made you want to start telling these stories now? Why not twenty years ago?
Mark Anthony: I think the stories were always there, but I was not ready to tell them in the same way.
Twenty years ago, I had the curiosity and the ideas, but not the same perspective. Like archaeology itself, I have spent a lot of time in dark places—not only exploring the past, but navigating life’s own challenges and gaining a stronger understanding of what truly matters.
Time changes the way you see the world. You begin to understand that landscape, memory, history and community are not separate things. They shape who we are.
I also feel less interested now in waiting for permission. Independent production allows me to develop stories patiently, build the right partnerships and create work on its own terms.
Perhaps these stories needed me to live them before I could write them. Now feels like the right time—not because the ideas are new, but because I finally understand why they matter.
Where would you like audiences to experience Bog Boys for the first time?
Mark Anthony: If I had my way, it would begin in Blackpool.
The story belongs there. It grows out of the town’s archaeology, folklore, history and the landscape that existed long before the promenade and the Tower. It feels right that the first audience should experience the play in the place that inspired it.
But although Bog Boys is unmistakably a northern drama, it has no boundaries. The questions it asks about memory, identity, history and the stories communities tell about themselves belong to all of us. I’d love to see it travel beyond Blackpool and find audiences wherever people enjoy original theatre rooted in place and character.
For me, bringing the play to Blackpool would not simply be a premiere—it would be bringing the story home.
What would you consider your greatest success, and what is your biggest challenge moving forward?
Mark Anthony: My greatest success was not a film or a production. It was caring for my mother, being there for her when she needed me most and knowing that I did the very best I could. Looking back, that is something I will always be proud of.
My biggest challenge now is to complete what I have set out to do. Nidd Films represents more than a production company; it is the culmination of a lifetime of ideas, experiences and a belief in the power of storytelling.
My challenge is to bring those stories to life with the same passion, commitment and love that I have tried to bring to everything I have done.
What do you hope people take away from your work?
Mark Anthony: I hope people leave with a stronger connection to the places around them.
Whether it is a film or a stage play, my ambition is always the same: to tell stories that encourage people to look again at the landscapes they thought they knew, to become curious about the history beneath their feet and to recognise that memory, heritage and community continue to shape who we are.
If someone walks away wanting to visit a museum, explore a footpath, read more about their local history or simply see their own landscape with fresh eyes, then I feel the story has achieved something worthwhile.
What one piece of advice would you give to an artist starting out?
Mark Anthony: There is a line in Braveheart that has always stayed with me:
“Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.”
That would be my advice. Listen to your instincts and remain true to the work you feel compelled to create. Learn your craft, work hard and welcome collaboration, but do not allow rejection, convention or other people’s expectations to silence your own voice.
One thing I have learned is that you cannot build your future waiting for the system to validate you. Sometimes it may open a door, but more often than not, those doors remain closed. You cannot allow that to become the measure of your worth or the limit of your ambition.
Build. Fund. Independently.
That does not mean working alone. It means taking responsibility for your own future. Learn your craft, build meaningful partnerships, support others, keep creating and never stop believing in the value of your own voice.
The opportunities you create yourself are often the ones that shape your career most profoundly.
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