FEATURE:
The Gaps Between the Tracks
Why the Incredible Series, Mix Tape, Resonated Strongly with Me
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THERE is a lot to unpack…
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Hunt and Rory Walton-Smith as teenage Alison and Dan in the miniseries, Mix Tape/PHOTO CREDIT: Cáit Fahy
when it comes to Mix Tape. A new series that is available on the BBC iPlayer. It is an adaptation of the book by Jane Sanderson. I will drop in a positive review for the four-part series. I sort of stumbled upon it. I had heard of the series and there was talk of it. As its title instantly connects with music and something oldskool and maybe something the digital generation cannot understand or appreciation, I dived in. I was born in 1983, so mixtapes and cassettes were a natural part of my childhood and teenage years. I will come to that. There are so many things to recommend about the series. The writing and direction is wonderful. The narrative spans from the late-1970s and early-1980s in Sheffield to the early-2010s in Australia (and Sheffield). The story follows the characters of Daniel and Alison as they reconnect through social media after initially connecting over music during their youth in Sheffield. I think maybe the modern-day scenes are more up-to-date and set around now, though I may be wrong. In any case, we flash between the young Daniel and Alison as they are in school and embarking on this teenage romance. Bonding through their love of music, they exchange cassettes, vinyl and talk about their favourite music. Discussion about which is the best The Velvet Underground song. An early moment where Alison is stopped in her tracks listening to Nick Drake’s Northern Sky. It is very emotional and evocative. The power of music and experiencing it in physical form. Even though the adult Daniel shares albums via Spotify with Alison as they reconnect and he travels to Sydney to see her after all these years, most of the music is played through headphones, stereos or in a rather traditional and physical way. The actual feel of physical music is why the series and music pops and sticks long in the heart. Here is every song that is included throughout the series. I will end with a digital mixtape of all but one of the Mix Tape tracks (as it was not available on Spotify).
IN THIS PHOTO: Teresa Palmer as Alison/PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Pratley
The entire cast is terrific! The adult Daniel is played by Jim Sturgess. The adult Alison by Teresa Palmer. Even though she has an Australian accent now – rather than her childhood Sheffield accent; her hair is now blonde and not brunette -, the two pick up where they left off. After having conversations around why she left Sheffield and what happened. The two are incredible and have this amazing chemistry. The end, though it has some rom-com cliches, is moving and tear-jerking. You will these two to get together again following the dissolution and strain of their troubled marriages. The teenage Daniel is portrayed by Rory Walton-Smith. An actor I had not heard of, I feel he has the look and talent to portray musicians like Alex Turner (Artic Monkeys are played in the series). If there is a Beatles biopic of the young Paul McCartney, Walton-Smith would seem like a natural fit! Kudos also to Sara Soulié as Katja. Daniel’s wife, the Finnish-Danish actor is superb as someone living with the jealousy and suspicion of her husband getting too close to an old love - and balancing that with her ambitions and happiness. The standout to me is Florence Hunt, who is going to ne a massive success! Not to compare her to her namesake Florence Pugh, but I do see Hunt taking on simar roles and having that success. Some of her scenes are particularly harrowing (including a rape scene), yet she handles the role and conveys the multiple emotions and nuance superbly. You can tell her and Rory Walton-Smith instantly clicked as their bond and romance seems convincing and right. They gel really well. Florence Hunt has appeared on Bridgeton and will appear in the forthcoming Queen of the Sea. Only eighteen, she is a remarkable talent who I can see in blockbuster films, Indie classics and maybe, and I am not sure how her singing voice is, recording music. Someone who inhabits the warmth, compassion and strains of Alison without any flaws. Teresa Palmer is also perfect in that sense as the adult Alison despite the fact that (obviously) the two actors playing Alison never share any screentime.
If some reviewers felt Mix Tape had some plot holes or there was too many rom-com cliches and overused beats, one cannot fault the performances, the phenomenal soundtrack and the fact that the perfect flashbacks are blended seamlessly with the ‘foreground’. Switching between decades-past Sheffield and the contemporary landscape, it is never jarring. Stories and characters giving equal weight and attention. This is what The Guardian wrote in their review from June. Even though I am nearly a couple of months late to the Mix Tape party, I only completed watching it on Saturday (2nd August) and I was compelled to write something – moved as I was by the very end:
“The question “will they or won’t they?” permeates many romantic stories, and it is almost always answered with “they do eventually”. In the four-part Irish-Australian drama Mix Tape, that evergreen question is still there, more or less, but it has been deepened and expanded in interesting ways. It’s not really about whether Alison and Dan will get together because we know they already did – one of the show’s two distinctly different timelines follows them as lovestruck teenagers in the 1980s.
But the other timeline, set in the present day, reveals Alison and Dan went their separate ways and haven’t seen each other for many years. There’s the possibility they might get back together, despite each being married with children to other people. But for me, it was more interesting to contemplate whether either of them could finally find healing and closure for their deeply unresolved feelings. The past is a lonely place, as they say, and it has left big sandbags weighing down their minds.
Which all sounds rather heavy. But this series – directed by Lucy Gaffy and written by Jo Spain, adapting Jane Sanderson’s novel of the same name – is staged with lightness of touch and is a real pleasure to watch. At its core are four beautifully judged performances: from Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgess as adult Alison and Dan in the present day, and Florence Hunt and Rory Walton-Smith as their younger selves. The latter convey giddy, intoxicating young love while the former are more plaintive and yearning.
IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Sturgess plays the older Daniel in Mix Tape/PHOTO CREDIT: Leanne Sullivan
As adults, Dan is a Sheffield-based music journalist while Alison is a bestselling novelist living in Australia. When a radio interviewer inquires about her upbringing in Sheffield, she gently infers she’d rather talk about something else. The script is full of small but salient moments like these, fleshing out the characters’ lives and emotions without dumbing things down or applying highlighter pen.
We’re introduced to the leads at a house party in Sheffield in 1989, when young Dan spots Alison from across the room. They get to know each other partly by swapping mix tapes, which of course enables plenty of needle drops (think Joy Division, the Cure, New Order). I initially feared a cheesy “soundtrack of love” element, but Gaffy strikes a good balance: sweet but never cloying. The characters’ intense connection is tempered by the knowledge they’ll ultimately split, the circumstances gradually revealed.
When Dan sends Alison a friend request years later, we can tell by the look on her face that it’s welcomed. Visually conveying this kind of emotional information isn’t easy, though it helps to have complex and enigmatic eyes like Teresa Palmer, who is very good at saying a lot with a little. She often plays roles that require her to balance relatability with concealed depths, such as the recent miniseries The Last Anniversary, Disney+’s cult-themed drama The Clearing and Cate Shortland’s kidnap movie Berlin Syndrome. Sturgess is excellent too as Dan, a man who seems to be constantly running things over in his mind, haunted by gaps in his life that might never be filled.
The terms “flashback” and “flashforward” feel too sharp and simple for Mix Tape. The jumps back and forward in time are more like joins, feeling fluid and instinctual; props to editors Katrina Barker and Christine Cheung. The trick – also demonstrated recently in Justin Kurzel’s psychologically complex series The Narrow Road to the Deep North – is to make each timeline feel both independent and interconnected: satisfying on their own terms, but also inseparable.
I was moved by both story strands in Mix Tape, which really do feel like two sides of the same coin. At four episodes of roughly one hour apiece, the runtime felt just right: more than enough to truly get to know these people. I left wishing the best for them”.
Although the story of Alison and Daniel coming together and then being pulled apart by family tragedy and unfortunate circumstances and then coming back together later in life is not something I can relate to, some of it did resonate. I remember bonding with someone very special when I was a child and it would be a case of us and friends very much sharing music and discussing artists. Our lives have gone different ways, and I often think about meeting up and connect with her. It would not be the same as it is was, though Mix Tape did take me back to my childhood of the 1980s and 1990s. I recently wrote a feature bemoaning the lack of needle drop moments in film. Maybe it is the cost of licensing songs and getting clearance that means songs are often briefly used or in the background. Mix Tape could not have worked on the small screen if artists whose songs were used charged a huge amount for their use (I guess T.V. shows do not really make money, so it would be unreasonable to ask for a lot of money!). Even though there are not some Quentin Tarantino-type needle drops through Mix Tapes, the songs are used to great effect. Stirring emotions, scoring incredible scenes and, in the case of Nick Drake and The Velvet Underground, integral to the bond and connection between Alison and Daniel. Songs that drive the story forward. The heavy use of diegetic music is very effecting and powerful. I was brought back to my childhood and how music, especially physical music, was so vital. Swapping albums and sharing headphones. Despite growing up further south than Sheffield, a lot of what was including ion Mix Tape I could identify with. I would encourage everyone to catch the series and binge it in one go!
It got me thinking beyond that. I know there was a 2021 film called Mixtape, so this idea of using mixtapes and music integrally in films and having the soundtrack being front and centre is not new. I don’t think it is retro or unrelatable. There is also a 2011 short called Mixtape. So the title and landscape is well covered. However, the stories and songs are different in each. I have always wanted to put together a film like Mix Tape. Obviously, the title would be different, though it would look at two people who knew one another that are in different places. Two sides of the world. Both sides of the cassette. Some genuinely great needle drop moments, including one where the lead in headphones is captured in a one shot walking through the streets or Camden or New York – I could not decide between the two –, and there is this ‘street symphony’. Songs played in cars and shops that builds in the streets blend and creates this rise. They go into the main character’s headphones, and the action in that opening sequence match the lyrics. I sort of see the film poster of someone on a train as a light is reflecting and projects an album cover (maybe Abbey Road or London Calling) opposite to give the illusion they are actually in the album cover! Maybe more practical and affordable as a T.V. series. However, today, when I was in Camden and thinking about Mix Tape, I encountered that moment walking down the street and different stalls and shops blasting music out (including Bob Marley). For me, in terms of setting, maybe the '90s is appropriate. A decade that has been covered a lot in terms of the music of that time used on screen, the soundtrack and the story would be different and original.
I was listening to Oasis a lot whilst in Camden and great memories came flooding back of my hearing Champagne Supernova and Live Forever for the first time – from their debut album, 1994’s Definitely Maybe and the 1995 follow-up, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, respectively. Roll with It, the second single from (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, turns thirty on 14th August. That song went up (and lost to) Blur’s Country House in the Bitpop battle of 1995. As much as anything, I don’t think there are a huge amount of T.V. shows and films where music is integral. Maybe it is the cost of clearing songs, though Mix Tape has a packed soundtrack where huge artists like The Cure and The Stone Roses feature. I guess bands like Oasis or Blur might charge more. However, these songs capture the times more than anything else. I think people can access forgotten memories through music in a very powerful and emotional way. It makes me want to put together my own series like Mix Tape. Inspired by the fantastic cast – especially the exceptional future icon Florence Hunt (who I would love to work with but will be getting a lot of massive offers very soon!) -, I have not been as affected by a recent series as much as that in recent years. Please do go and check it out if you have not watched it already. Even though Mix Tape is a literary adaptation and not an original idea for T.V., it does justice to Jane Sanderson’s words. I do feel that we will see more ideas like this coming to the screen. Compelled and hugely motivated writers and directors will soon be…
FOLLOWING Mix Tape’s lead.