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Mutts and millions: how Kay Mellor rethought The Syndicate after getting a shih tzu

The drama series about lottery winners is back. And this time, thanks to a very talented dog called Happy, it’s exploited kennel-workers who have hit the jackpot. The veteran TV writer reveals all

There’s a dog in the new series of The Syndicate that’s small, white and fluffy. Caninewise, that’s not my cup of tea at all. Yet I was struck by its tremendous acting. This dog is a genuine talent, packing a huge range of emotions into its tiny face, while displaying considerable comic timing. As I watched the drama, written by Kay Mellor, I wondered how you would train an animal to be so skilful. Well, it turns out it’s Mellor’s own dog, Happy.

Any normal person, getting such a pet for the first time at the age of 70, would just post a lot of pictures of it on Facebook. Instead, Mellor entirely rethought season four of the BBC show. As its name suggests, The Syndicate is about people who win the lottery, with a different group followed in each series. The first was set in a Leeds supermarket, the second in a Bradford hospital, the third in an ailing stately home near Scarborough. And now, thanks to Happy, the latest series returns to Leeds, to follow a bunch of kennel-workers.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3sz2W92
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