Actors Jonathan Ajayi and Lucie Bourdeu on The Drifters – their odd-couple romance

On the surface, Benjamin Bond’s directorial debut, The Drifters, is full of colour and sun soaked energy, but underneath that seemingly frothy surface is a darker side, one that tests the odd couple romance at its centre.

The film introduces us to the talents Jonathan Ajayi and Lucie Bourdeu as the pair who first meet while learning English at evening classes and take off to the Devonshire coast when he needs to get out of town. Their attempts to escape their respective pasts – his in a violent part of Africa, hers more mercurial but with little in the way of responsibility – prove to be little more than an elusive dream and one that can never last.

Talking to The People’s Movies’ Freda Cooper, the two talk about the appeal of their respective roles and filming on location in Devon – where the sun shone just as much as we see in the film! Jonathan was still at drama school when he made the film, and was snapped up for a role in Wonder Woman 1984, working alongside Pedro Pascal. For Lucie, this was her first film in English, and she reflects on the challenges that presented, along with the ups and downs of appearing in a long-running comedy series in her native .