CRUEL intentions

ALICE ENGLERT amd NICHOLAS DENTON on their lavish origin story to an 18th Classic

- TESS LAMACRAFT

DANGEROUS LIAISONS NEW FROM SUNDAY 6 NOV, LIONSGATE+ DRAMA

Scheming, seduction, and sumptuous costumes are the intoxicating mix of ingredients in a glossy new imagined prequel to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' classic 18thcentury novel Les Liaisons dangereuses.

Launching on Lionsgate+ (a rebrand of Starzplay) via Prime Video this week, Dangerous Liaisons sees Australian actors Alice Englert (The Serpent) and Nicholas Denton (Glitch) take on the leading roles of Camille and her lover, Pascal Valmont.

The story charts their first meeting in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, how they fell in love, and their plot to rise from the slums to scale the dizzy heights of the aristocracy.

'You see them pitted against each other and start to understand the undercurrent of their traumas, where they came from, and why they are the way they are,' explains Nicholas.

The eight-parter also stars Sherwood's Lesley Manville as Camille's powerful mentor, Genevieve de Merteuil, and Pennyworth's Paloma Faith (see our interview, below right) as manipulative aristocrat Florence de Regnier.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Alice and Nicholas give TV Times their take on the drama...

How do you view your characters?

ALICE At first we don’t know much about Camille’s past – there’s a lot of mystery to her. When the series begins, she’s involved in a passionate relationship with Valmont.

NICHOLAS Valmont originally comes from the aristocracy, but his title and wealth were removed following his father’s death. He has this viper-like side to him and will do whatever it takes to get back what’s been taken from him, but there’s also a deep vulnerability and insecurity about him.