Paul McGuinness had two lofty ambitions in life and he has ticked both boxes in spectacular fashion.
As the highly successful manager of rock supergroup U2 for 35 years up to 2013, McGuinness is credited with transforming stadium rock events, with his innovation in stage designs helping to provide a blueprint for what we expect from the world's biggest bands today.
Yet that was not enough for his fascinating genius, as he set his sights on a whole new adventure as he embarked on the task of being the brainchild and executive producer of Sky Atlantic's Riviera, which instantly became the most watch original programme the satellite broadcaster has produced.
Ahead of the second season of Riviera on Sky Atlantic, Female First sat down for an exclusive chat with the inspirational McGuinness, as he gave us a glimpse into a career that has been an endless story of success.
ARE YOU LIVING THE DREAM ONCE AGAIN AS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ON RIVIERA?
As a young man, my ambition was to either be the manager of a giant rock band or make successful television or movies and now that I am making Riviera for Sky, I guess I have ticked both boxes. Stepping down as U2's manager was never going to be the end of my working life. The U2 part of my career will always be something to look back on with pride, but three and a half decades is a long time to work on one project and when I decided to bring that to an end, I had an opportunity to work on other ideas.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM SEASON TWO OF RIVIERA?
Bigger and better, that's what we set out to do. We have been to Monaco for filming this time and there is a younger feel to the cast this time. We have retained most of the key characters from season one, but the exciting characters we have added have brought the age down a little and added a freshness to the set. We have a little more glamour and youth this time and we have some wonderful things to look out for on TV. Julia has a beautiful car to drive around in and I love what we have produced this time. This is an edgy show that is loaded with glamour, shocking scenes, murder, financial excess, yachts, Russian bad guys and it has been a wonderful concoction.
THERE IS AN AMAZING YACHT IN THE OPENING EPISODE OF SEASON 2. TELL US ABOUT THAT?
It is called the White Rose of Drachs and we were very lucky to get hold of it for filming. The captain of the yacht lives near me and that helped me to get hold of it for the show. I casually asked him one day whether we could use it and promised we would not damage it and we are delighted with how it looks on screen.
RIVIERA GIVES AN INTERESTING SLANT ON THE ART WORLD AND IT SEEMS MORE THAN A LITTLE SHADY. IS THAT A FAIR ASSESSMENT?
We have become very attentive to the art world, the gossip that goes on in that world and the extraordinary boom around art amongst exceptionally wealthy people. This has exploded over the last 20 years and it shows no sign of stopping. As we emphasised in the first season of Riviera, it is completely unregulated and the sums of money that change hands are extraordinary. Hundreds of millions of dollars can go into an art deal and there is very little analysis of where the money comes from and where it goes.
SO DOES THE ART WORLD NEED TO BE REGULATED?
How can you regulate it? It is all run through auction houses and there are these duty-free art warehouses dotted around Europe that are part of the story. There is one in Geneva, one in Monaco, another in Singapore and one in New York If a major piece of art is sold, it may never leave one of those warehouses and will be switched from one cage owned by person A and moved to another cage owned by person B. The guy who owns most of these art freeport's is a Swiss guy who lives in Monaco recently sold a Da Vinci painting.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE LOCATION OF THE FRENCH RIVIERA TO THE SHOW?
It is an additional member of the cast, for sure. To make a show like this, you need a lot of people. We are shooting 10 hours of screen time and it's far too big for one person. You need lots of writers, lots of directors. What has surprised me is the way our actors have become such valuable contributors to our scripts. The directors are changing all the time and the one constant we have in this production is the actor and the characters they play. When they tell us that their character is doing something they are not comfortable with, we listen to them. They know their own characters better than anyone and we appreciate their input in everything we do. If you have intelligent actors, it would be mad not to utilise their skills and it creates a great atmosphere on set. We have some very smart people in this cast.
DO YOU SEE RIVIERA RETURNING FOR A THIRD SEASON?
I would like to think this show will go on for several years. It has been a huge success story for all of us involved and Sky love what we are doing. We have a wonderful working relationship with them and the freedom we have with this network is fantastic. They are not bound by the same watershed rules as the BBC would be and this gives them a chance to allow creativity to flourish. Within the range of channels that Sky have, Sky Atlantic is the more edgy and bold platform. You get more sex and violence that you might on ITV1 or the BBC, which is fantastic for us.
Season 2 of Riviera starts 23 May on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.
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Words by Kevin Palmer, who you can follow on Twitter @RealKevinPalmer.