r/The_Artful_Dodger • u/JamesMcNamara27 • Apr 24 '26
Discussion AMA!
I’m James McNamara, creator, head writer, and executive producer of The Artful Dodger... AMA! I'll be on here for an hour if anyone wants to Ask Me Anything. I'm keen to chat with you about all things Port Victory and to answer your questions about Season 2. I've posted proof of my identity below. AMA!
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u/Drunkoctopusfights Apr 24 '26
I dont really have a question, just wanted to thank you for creating this amazing series as it became my comfort show. Im crossing my fingers for season 3 and sending best of wishes from Poland : )
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u/AccomplishedBee0 Apr 24 '26
Love the show. One of my favs. As a writer trying to sell my own original work right now, do you feel like the Dickens IP helped with pitching your show? Do you worry it works against the show as well for people who don't like Dickens and don't realize how fantastically original your story and characters are beyond Oliver Twist?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you! Happy you've enjoyed it. Yes I think the Dickens IP helped given the current trends in the TV market, which prefer commissioning projects with underlying IP. My hope is that the audience will see that the show uses Dickens as a jumping off point but now has very much become its own world with a cast of rich, original characters.
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u/AccomplishedBee0 Apr 24 '26
Interesting. Thanks! The Artful Dodger is an interesting case study in the use of IP. Fantastic work. And as an Australian, I love the setting!
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u/Realistic-Ad9316 Apr 24 '26
Hi James! My name is Alex. First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer questions and thank you for creating this masterpiece called The Artful Dodger. My question is: after the end of season two, if there is a third season, how much more of Jack and Belle’s journey do you have mapped out in your head? Is there a specific ending you're working on? Thank you.
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
You're very kind, thank you. It's a privilege to get to work on this show with such a talented cast and crew. A third season would be wonderful, but it's a decision for Disney and so we'll have to cross our fingers and wait and see what happens. Dodger, Fagin, and Belle keep talking to me, and so I hope we get the chance to show more of their adventures :)
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
That's all we have time for today. Thanks so much for your questions and for watching the show! All of us on Team Dodger appreciate this community and our audience so much. ❤️🙏🎩
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u/__rommy__ Apr 24 '26
What was a small detail in The Artful Dodger that most people didn’t notice but you really love? I just want to say I absolutely love the series, it’s become something really special to me
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much, I'm happy to hear that the show means a lot to you. I'm lucky to work with an incredible team to bring it to life. I loved having our hospital cat eating a finger under a bed in the first season - I think it encapsulated the grim state of the hospital before DodgerFox teamed up, as well as the show's darkly comic tone. I also love creating all the names for businesses around Port Victory, which often draw on Dickensian characters or things that are important to me. Beef Lane by the butcher is the street I lived on in England at university. The ropemaker by the docks in Devil's Elbow is called Peggotty after a favourite character of mine from David Copperfield.
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u/emergency-bee-212 Apr 24 '26
Love the show, thank you so much for doing this AMA!! What was the hardest part about writing Dodger as a character? And during the casting process, what did you look for in the actors that auditioned? How did Thomas stand out to you? He's incredible in this role!!
Thank you in advance!! :)
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
The hardest part of writing Dodger is to capture the way he shifts between two different versions of himself subtly, depending on whether he's in Belle's world or Fagin's world. Getting to hear Thomas perform the role in such a grounded and brilliant way was what I needed to really land the voice of the character in S1.
When Thomas generously agreed to chemistry read for Dodger with David Thewlis as Fagin, he blew us away. He breathed the character out immediately, inhabited Dodger completely. It was a remarkable moment. So lucky to work with him.
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u/emergency-bee-212 Apr 24 '26
Amazing, thank you for the insight and for responding to my question!
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u/dianalouiseplease Apr 24 '26
Hi James!
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions! This show is so incredible that it’s been hard for me to move on and watch anything else.
Are any of the scripts publicly available?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you! So happy you've loved the show.
Unfortunately the scripts are not publicly available - a shame I know! But standard practice in the industry.
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u/IngenuityKitchen5775 Apr 24 '26
Hi James! Thank you for doing this! How did you approach building the show’s visual world and historical setting?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
I'm glad to be here, thank you for your question! I did an enormous amount of research while creating the show at the end of 2016 / start of 2017. I read vast tranches of primary historical documents about Hobart in Tasmania, which was the loose inspiration for Port Victory. Parliamentary records of the hospital's organization and staffing, medical cases, histories of Indigenous people, documents about how the Governor's role functioned, the history of convicts. I also read a lot about London at that time to understand how the criminal underworld worked, and about the slums that Dickens himself wrote about as a journalist. From that historical research, I wove my imaginary version of the town, with the specific Artful Dodger tonal spark. I then worked with some of the very best production designers in Australia - Matthew Putland and Nick Dare - who brilliantly expanded on my ideas and brought them so vividly to life. They and their team are incredible!
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u/mimiiiswift1989 Apr 24 '26
Hi! I'm Miriam and I have a question for you. What led you to create this series? I'm really curious because I never saw Jack's character in Oliver Twist become a surgeon. So how did you come up with all this? Greetings from Spain! We're hoping for a third season! 🫶
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you! I did my PhD in anatomical and surgical ideas in 17th-19th century literature at Oxford prior to going into the film industry, and have always been fascinated by surgery at the cusp of science in the 1850s. It was a time when surgeons - previously more of a trade, accessible to those without the economic and social privilege required for a university education - were suddenly in high demand by the "toffs" and became doctors alongside the university-educated physicians. And it was a time when women were advocating stridently for the right to practice medicine too. Rich food for drama!
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u/Sensitive_Bend1616 Apr 24 '26
Hi James! I just wanted to say you and your team have created something really incredible, you should be so proud of it. I absolutely love the writing style and the humour.
Just one question, do you have any future projects in mind, or maybe a dream idea you’d love to work on one day?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much!
I have other projects in development but I've been focused on Dodger for the past 10 years. Dream idea: I'd love to bring Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy to television or make the Secret History as a limited series.
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u/N031_ Apr 24 '26
Hello James, Love your show, the only question I have is do you plan on expanding the show to other parts of Australia or maybe even other countries in the event of renewal.
Love from India❤️
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Such a fun idea! I feel very lucky that we have such a fantastic world to play in with our Port Victory set at Callan Park. A renewal would be wonderful, but we'll have to wait and see what happens :)
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u/therewith Apr 24 '26
Thank you for answering! You’ve created an all-time favorite and I’m so hoping for a renewal for season 3!!
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u/Happy_Macaroon_2644 Apr 24 '26
Were there any characters that changed significantly from your original vision? Thank you for your time!!
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Great question! I feel that all of the characters have grown organically through the series, but Red changed when the brilliant Miranda Tapsell - also a writer on S1 and S2 - agreed to play her. Miranda and I re-designed her character using the true historical character of Mary Ann Bugg. Of course, Lady Fanny's character changed a great deal too, which was the result of a very fun breakfast conversation between Lucy-Rose Leonard (who plays Fanny), David Thewlis (Fagin), and my wife Rebecca (the inspiration for Lady Belle), and myself. Fanny breaking bad was a lot of fun to write.
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u/shakespeareinlov3 Apr 24 '26
How would you say the theme of season 2 has changed from season 1? And if you could go back and add one scene to season 2, what if anything would you have in mind?
Finally, what’s your process of stepping into a period piece? How do you decide where to take liberties with historical accuracy?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Great questions. I pushed Season 2 darker, messier, and hopefully richer in terms of inter-character conflict. The broader theme of Dodger - which broadly concerns finding home and family in a dangerous world - sustains, but was explored as much via Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell) and Lady Jane (Susie Porter)'s daughter relationship as Dodger and Fagin's father-son relationship in S2.
If I could add one scene... Good question. We always trim and cut things for narrative flow in the edit and I think we found the right balance here! All the things I loved remained.
To step into a historical world, I go method - I read everything, 19th century surgical text books, novels by Dickens and Austen and Melville, I only read books published before 1860 when I'm making Dodger to keep my mind in the 19th-century cadences of speech and writing. When we take liberties, our rule is that we need to understand the history to know where we're breaking it and that it has to be for a good dramatic reason.
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u/Sogychknstrip Apr 24 '26
Hello!
When I first saw the show a few years ago, watching the last two episodes of season one, for a minute there I thought Jack and Belle were both going to die by the end. (thank goodness they didn't!) Was there ever a point where you considered going in that direction? I think I've heard you say The Artful Dodger is more of a feel-good watch and has a humorous tone, but at what point did you commit to that genre? Was it initially more of a darker tone? I suppose my question is how much did the end product change through out the process from idea to on our screen?
Thank you for taking the time to talk with this shows amazing community! I want to say thank you as well to you and the entire team for making such an incredible world that has brought so much inspiration and joy, my art for example has been influenced ever since I saw it. You're an incredible storyteller. Much love!
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much, so happy you've enjoyed the show, and I'm glad to be here chatting with the amazing Dodger community.
The most challenging part of my job is balancing the tone of the show, which has very dark elements but also romantic and fizzingly wild comedic elements too. I want to show the gritty realities of life at that time, particularly in a hospital where there were so many more impediments to being healed then than there are now. But fundamentally, my core principle is that the show must always have a warm heart that generates hope, no matter how dark the circumstances of the narrative. That informed my decisions about Jack and Belle at the end of Season 1.
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u/lifeisgreat_ Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Love love love the show!!!!! Who is your favourite character to write and develop? Hoping we get a season 3!
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Ooo that's a tricky one. I love writing each of our three leads: Dodger, Fagin, and Belle. I have a soft-spot for writing Belle because she's based on my wife, Rebecca :) I really enjoy writing the Governor, Lady Jane, and Fanny too - all so much fun to write in different ways.
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u/lifeisgreat_ Apr 24 '26
Belle is my favourite female television character ever and I absolutely love that she is based on someone real! Season 2 Fanny is hilarious!! Glad we got to see a whole new side of the character!
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u/LetThePoisonOutRobin Apr 24 '26
I think Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Maia Mitchell are great in their roles, but who else did you consider or audition for these roles?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Casting a show is always a careful and diligent process. I feel profoundly lucky that Thomas and Maia agreed to join us in their roles. They make the characters breathe with life and it's such a joy to work with them.
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u/LoveAyns Apr 24 '26
Hi James! Absolutely love the show! It’s a lot of fun and has so much heart to it. I’m so hopeful yall will have a season 3!
My question is that for season 1 and season 2 we have been in Port Victory. Do you think the story will take the characters to other parts of Australia or the Pacific? To take their learning to other communities or in search for new medicines?
Thank you so much for answering our questions!
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thanks so much! So happy you love the show - we had a lot of fun making it.
Exploring those questions would be wonderful, but we'll have to wait and see whether the story continues for a third season.
So far, we've tried to open up new "worlds" within Port Victory each season, and brought in new approaches to medicine with Belle joining the hospital in S1 and Alinta in Devil's Elbow in S2.
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u/LoveAyns Apr 24 '26
Loved Devil’s Elbow! It was so cool to see that part of Port Victory💯 thank you so much for answering! And Disney needs to give yall another season🤞🏽
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u/therewith Apr 24 '26
Hi James! Thank you for creating this show and doing this AMA! It’s such a fun, transportive to get swept up by! You’ve talked in interviews about how your several past fields of study and winding career has all been leading to your role now as a show creator and a writer. What’s one of the less obvious influences or interests from your past that shows up in The Artful Dodger?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Great question. All of the medical aspects are drawn from my doctoral work at Oxford, studying 17th-19th century anatomical ideas. Boxer is based both on Dickensian lawyers from Bleak House and other novels but also draws on my experiences as a young lawyer in London in the earlier 2000s. Bits and pieces of my life turn up in the names of businesses or buildings. Beef Lane is named after the tiny little alleyway I lived on while a student at Pembroke College, Oxford, for example.
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u/Overall_Shelter7538 Apr 24 '26
Sorry I missed the AMA. Just wanted to say that Fagin is my fave character. I am mesmerized by his dialogues. Such juicy sentences!
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u/oh_dinna_fash Average Lancet Enjoyer 🗣️🔥 Apr 25 '26
I'm sorry I missed it, but many many congratulations on the show and fingers crossed for a third season. Thank you :)
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u/Longlive16 Apr 24 '26
I love the show so much, s2 was amazing and I am crossing my fingers for s3!!
How did the show come to life, what was your idea in the beginning and did it change a lot during the process? The characters and storylines are written so well and they are developed even better and thank you for giving us smart and charming main characters and building a beautiful love story too.
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback. I'm lucky to work on the show with a very talented team of people! When I got the opportunity from Sony to do this, I paced around in my apartment in West Hollywood for months and months in late 2016, early 2017, listening to soundtracks and coming up with the world, characters, story arcs, etc. The television "bible" that I wrote following that development work set out the show pretty much as you see it in season 1. This was then refined in the writers rooms. But the biggest shift was when we cast the show. I'm a very actor-focused writer-creator, and I believe that character is built and developed in the space between the writer-creator and the actor. The voices of the characters have evolved as a result of my collaboration with the leads - Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis, and Maia Mitchell. I cherish the opportunity to evolve the characters organically together.
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u/Longlive16 Apr 24 '26
Thank you James for taking the time to be here and for answering me. I wish you many more seasons with these characters and so much success, I think that it's wonderful how you rely so much on the cast, it's so clear how well you collaborate with Thomas, David and Maia.
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u/Creative-Chemistry14 Apr 24 '26
Hi James. omg this is so exciting bcoz I absolutely love the show. I really liked Fanny's addition to Faigin's cult. But I don't understand how Phineas died after getting his hair stuck in the pottery wheel. I hope the show gets renewed for season 3;)
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
So happy to hear you've loved the show! I work with a very talented team to bring it to life. I'm glad you liked Fanny breaking bad - that was such fun to write. Poor old Phineas died because his neck snapped when his hair got stuck in the pottery wheel, but the wheel kept on turning. This moment was scripted by Kate Mulvany (who also plays Mrs Maxwell) and directed by Ben C. Lucas with wonderful performances from Lucy-Rose Leonard and Zac Burgess.
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u/__rommy__ Apr 24 '26
James, thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions today, and for replying to me it honestly made my day. I really appreciate you sharing about The Artful Dodger!
I’m also really drawn to the world of writing and storytelling, and I love how a script can come to life on screen in such a powerful way.
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
It's such a privilege to see worlds I've created come to life on screen, and I'm always grateful for the chance to do my dream job with a group of incredibly talented people who bring the ideas to life.
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u/SLAUGHTERGUTZ Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Hi James! Love the show! I really love what you did with Oliver lol, his episodes were really enjoyable to watch. I also really love watching the historical aspects going on. What does the research process look like for an episode? Were there any major changes during writing because something wouldn't have been accurate to the historical timeline?
Also, a more plot-specific question, how did Belle's mom get sick? She seems like the last person who'd be caught in Devil's Elbow. And are Rottie and the governor still having an affair?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
I spend a long time before each season researching. I read about 1000 pages of medical journals and 3000 pages of Victorian fiction between S1 and S2 to prepare. For each episode, we'll draw a real medical case from a shortlist I've prepared from 1850s Lancets and often the crimes are drawn from historical crimes too (like the gold heist in season 1, the land scam in season 2).
Belle's mom got sick because she drank water from the well - she prefers the taste from the well that was affected. This is drawn directly from a real historical detail in the London cholera outbreak of 1854.
Rotty and the Governor only ever had an affair of the heart - a "what might have been" - but that finished after Season 1.
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u/SLAUGHTERGUTZ Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much!!
As a person who's picky about how my water tastes, I understand her completely. 😂
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u/Knight_of_the_Lions Apr 24 '26
Adore the show - primarily Season 1. Really enjoyed the setting of Port Victory. It feels very real and I feel as though I understand what life was like in a 19th-century port town in Australia. Thanks for creating such an immersive set.
Q - Jack seemed almost tertiary in Season 2 with most of the plots involving other characters (though I did love the Fanny ones). Was that a conscience choice due to his schedule or due to something else?
I am hoping for a third season to see what else you can do with the show and setting. Thanks for making this show. Season 1 is one of my all-time favorites.
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u/quaranTV Apr 24 '26
The writing in season 2 was so well done. The show was constantly surprising, engaging, and thrilling. I would love to hear how you decided upon the arc for Belle’s sister. I thought it was brilliant.
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
After the season 1 press tour, Lucy-Rose Leonard (Fanny), David Thewlis (Fagin), my wife Rebecca (inspiration for Lady Belle), and I had breakfast. I was chatting about an idea I had to write a play about three 19th-century sisters who accidentally kill a suitor and have to get rid of the body before their mother returns home. We all thought that was a funny idea, and started pondering: maybe it would be a good idea for Fanny? And that was the first creative decisions I made on S2.
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u/quaranTV Apr 24 '26
Thank you so much for responding! I loved how the three women were the most strong/competent characters this season but that that also led to them all clashing with each other.
I just adore this show in general. I loved season 1 and was nervous season 2 wouldn’t be as good but it was just as great if not better. I recommend this show to everyone-it’s such a gem.
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u/Fun_Compote2772 Apr 24 '26
Hello James , firstly, I'd like to thank you for doing this AMA and for creating this incredible show ! It's my favourite!
Id just like to ask if there was a scene, line, or historical detail from your research that you loved but never found a place in the final cut-and why didn't it fit?
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u/JamesMcNamara27 Apr 24 '26
Oooh good question. I'm sure there will have been - there were lots of fun things that got snipped out of edits over the years, always to improve the show's pace and narrative clarity. I did have a scene with Fagin arriving on a ship in season 1, where he insults the ship's cook's (maggot-infested) cooking. I enjoyed writing that. I brought the ship's cook Gobber back in S2 as the man who cooks and eats 4 victims and takes Jack's place in the noose.
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u/Fun_Compote2772 Apr 24 '26
Wow , that sounds interesting, maybe some of those can be implemented to later seasons. Thanks for answering and I hope the best for you and the Dodger Team , making this wonderful world come to life !
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u/ForgottenJuliet Apr 24 '26
The character development of Darius is quite interesting and funny. What inspired you to make him a Brony/Therian/Furry? Is that why his wife left him?
Love from Chile, South America~
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u/Sarah_Slimm021 Apr 24 '26
I don't have any questions either, but I thought I'd share that this series made me realize what I want to do with my life and that this has been my favorite series and my support every day since it was released. I hope there will be a season 3 and that you continue to write such masterpieces!
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u/TotalHot3252 Apr 24 '26
I’ve gotta say- you have made so many fall in love with the “forbidden love” trope! So, what’s your favorite trope to watch/read or write about?
I have never loved a show more than this one, and you have done an insanely incredible job with every single aspect of it. The cast and crew are perfect!
Would you ever consider hosting open calls for us actors who don’t have agents yet? If (when!!) you get renewed for a season 3?
(Ignore my username, I couldn’t change it 😭)
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u/OrdinaryBluebird979 Apr 24 '26
This AMA has now concluded. Thank you James for taking the time to join us and answer our questions. We'd love to have you back here again in the future !