Steven Knight, the man behind TV hits Peaky Blinders (soon to return as a movie) and SAS Rogue Heroes who recently accepted the challenge of penning the next James Bond film, will be hoping to add another success story to his already impressive CV with his new Netflix series House of Guinness.
Here, we question the Wiltshire-born screenwriter about what led him to delve into the history of one of Ireland’s most famous families and the process of creating and filming a TV period piece packed with drama, intrigue, action - and, of course, beer...
What is House of Guinness about?
It’s the extraordinary story of a family that happens to be the inheritors of the biggest brewery in the world.
They’re very young, there are four of them, and they are given the task of taking on this incredibly successful brand. The first priority is not to screw it up, and the second priority is to make it even bigger.
People who know Guinness know which one happened, but this is the incredible story of how they achieved that.
Read more: Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight to write next James Bond film
How did you come to write and create the series?
[Production company] Kudos had this story a few years ago. I started working with them on SAS Rogue Heroes and they thought this might be of interest to me since I’m interested in beer.
Basically, the question was, “would you be interested in doing the Guinness story?”, and my answer was “yes, definitely!”.
So, I started to do a bit of research to decide where to come in. There’s a lot of folklore about the very, very early days, so it felt to me the time to come in was with the death of Benjamin Guinness, who left the brewery to his four children in 1868.
How did the idea for the show originate?
Ivana [Lowell, granddaughter of Maureen Constance Guinness] is an extraordinary human being and an absolute mine of information and untold stories about the family going back years.
I think it was her initial approach to get the story on the radar of a television production company.
We met Ivana in a pub: we went to order Guinness and they didn’t have any - so the landlord very kindly went out and got us some. It was a very long lunch; the stories flowed, and the champagne also flowed.
Meeting her was the best bit of research imaginable because you didn’t just get the stories, you got the spirit and the confidence and the slight madness - the whole thing.
That was when I was absolutely hooked and I thought “I’ve got to tell these stories”.
How true is the show to the real-life history of the Guinness family?
I would say there are two forms of reality in this. One is being faithful to the truth of the characters, and I think it is very true to the characters.
These were human beings who really existed at this time - they were members of the Guinness family, people who worked with them and for them, and what I’ve tried to do is bring those characters to life as faithfully as possible.
The real thing was so interesting and more interesting than I could ever invent, because reality always is so bonkers, and so I stayed true to the characters.
In terms of the events, the chronology is pretty spot-on, I’m picking stepping stones of actual events to leap between - the leaps in-between are invention/speculation: maybe this happened, maybe that would have happened.
So it’s a mixture, but I hope that if those characters were alive now they would recognise themselves.
Can you tell us a little about the casting of the four siblings?
The heart of the story really is Arthur and Edward Guinness, brothers played by Anthony [Boyle] and Louis [Partridge].
I won’t give away the plot, but for very interesting reasons, they were given joint stewardship of the brewery. Their father very deliberately chained them together in the responsibility for the brewery, and you’ll find out why when you watch.
It left young Benjamin [Fionn O’Shea] and Anne [Emily Fairn] with very little, but that doesn’t mean they are not integral to the story, because they are, and they are very important.
James Norton was our first choice, like a lot of the cast. I had a very interesting phone conversation with him about the character, Rafferty, who is one of the most extraordinary aspects of this [show], and his relationship with the family is actually how it was. It’s very modern and very extraordinary.
I had a long conversation and discovered he’d read the first three scripts and was really intrigued by that character, which helped to swing it - and he’s just brilliant!
Can you tell us a little about the female characters in the show?
The female characters in the show are incredibly strong because the real life female characters were incredibly strong, so it’s simply a question of reflecting that.
They were living in the 1860s in Dublin, which meant that to be a female was a very particular ‘requirement’, and the way that they manoeuvre around the restrictions and expectations is remarkable.
They are very smart, intelligent, strong, powerful human beings with a great deal of influence who have to sort of pretend not to be, which is always an interesting situation to be in.
The cast playing those characters are so extraordinarily good, it’s amazing.
What was the hardest part about writing and making House of Guinness?
There’s a lot happening to these people, and I actually enjoyed the challenges that it threw up.
I do like to have lots of plates spinning and trying to join them up in an interesting way. It’s a very busy show, which I love, and I think that gives us a real fizz, like a pint of Guinness, like a real energy.
My intention was to never stop: don’t slow down, don’t pause for breath, just keep going.
Did you watch much of it being filmed?
I prefer to let good people get on with what they do best, but some of the days were irresistible.
The big crowd scenes, the wedding scenes, the brewery: our brilliant team built the Guinness brewery in a warehouse in Liverpool, and it was great.
It breaks my heart to think that this thing is going to be taken apart. It looks so great. I tried to be there whenever I could.
I know the cast had a hoot. There are lots of stories, some of them I can’t repeat!
Can you tell us about the decision not to film in Ireland?
Dublin now looks less like Dublin in 1868 than other areas do. If you’re not in Dublin, you’ve got the whole of Great Britain to choose from, so there might be a street corner in Liverpool that looks perfect.
I think it’s a compromise to insist to oneself you have to go and shoot it all in one place. Peaky wasn’t filmed in Birmingham, because Birmingham didn’t look like Birmingham in the 1920s anymore.
It didn’t mean I was any less passionate about the city - it was a purely practical decision.
Did you drink Guinness while writing the show?
Oh yes! While writing, at the end of a session, I just had to have a pint of Guinness. And that’s when I discovered that Guinness is really trendy now.
It used to be old blokes drinking it, and I genuinely got a real taste for it.
I want one now!
While writing, at the end of a session, I just had to have a pint of Guinness. I genuinely got a real taste for it
— Steven Knight
Finally, could there be a second series of House of Guinness?
I could keep this going to the 1960s - it could go all the way to the company’s sale.
Every generation has an incredible story attached to it, which is great. There’s so much more to come.
All eight episodes of House of Guinness will be available from September 25
