Wilderness creators on lead star Jenna Coleman, strikes and their love letter to Taylor Swift | Ents & Arts News

Taylor Swift might already be somewhat ubiquitous at the moment thanks to her Eras tour, upcoming movie and the nine MTV VMA prizes she took home this week, but she’s about to get even more attention thanks to her track being used in a new drama starring Jenna Coleman.

Her 2017 song Look What You Made Me Do is the title track for Wilderness – the story of a couple whose dream holiday quickly sours amid deception and revenge – and also sums up the mood of the main character Liv, who is portrayed by Coleman.

Swift is one of the biggest stars in the world right now which might make the process of using one of her tracks sound challenging but the show’s creator Marnie Dickens told Sky News’ Backstage podcast it was in fact “lovely”.

“I write all my commercial tracks into the script, so in this case, it’s Liv’s point of view, so it’s kind of like her playlist because I think music is a very good way to get behind whatever the character, whatever mask they put up, whatever you listen to in your AirPods, I think, is expressing your sort of emotional state,” she explained.

“So the track was in there in episode two anyway, and then Amazon were like, ‘you know, you can have somebody for the title track, who’s your dream?’ And obviously Taylor was the dream.”

“So I wrote a love letter to her saying why this song is perfect, why she’s perfect, and it worked… She gave her blessing.”

Wilderness is based on a book and Dickens, whose previous work includes the series’ Gold Digger and Thirteen, says that while she appreciates being given a twisty thriller to write from, she also loved the setting of the drama.

“It’s a juicy relationship thriller which is very much in my wheelhouse but instantly it took it out of the domestic sphere,” she said.

“So you had a natural sort of expansive story stage, which is very…