“At the heart of it was a purity in this wonderful love”: Charlotte Regan, Emma Laird, Loyle Carner, Laura Fraser and Sam Riley on Mint

Gangsters and princesses may seem like strange bedfellows, but Charlotte Regan’s new drama, Mint, is a whimsical take on the traditional gangster format. It follows Shannon (Emma Laird), the daughter of an infamous Scottish gangster, in her quest to find Prince Charming.

Following an advance screening at BFI Southbank, Regan and the cast discussed this novel reimagining of the crime family genre. As the creator and director of the series, Regan explained that she found inspiration from a familiar place. “I love watching Scorsese, things like that, and I thought there [are] always women that were in it,” she said, noting that female characters in such films are rarely fleshed out, instead used as props to advance the narratives of men.

Heading the series, Emma Laird revealed that she saw herself in daydreaming idealist Shannon. “It felt very nostalgic to me,” she reflected. “I read the script, and I saw the girls that I went to school with, and I started sort of looking through this lens of, like, my 18-year-old self. And yeah, it’s beautiful and nostalgic, and I knew that I wanted her to be girly. At the heart of it was this purity in this wonderful love, and this naivety.”

Having starred in Brighton Rock, this was not the first time Sam Riley, who plays Shannon’s father, Dylan, fronted a gangster narrative. However, he tried not to lean too heavily into past roles. “I didn’t rewatch anything, but I’ve grown up loving those sorts of films,” he said. “Charlie’s not going to like what I say next, but I really wanted to work with her. I wanted to work with her, and she wanted to work with me.”

In his debut TV role, musician Loyle Carner plays Arran, Shannon’s love interest. He discussed the daunting task of transitioning from music to the small screen. “It was like trying to learn how to use a different part of me to do the same thing, tell a story…It’s weird to be like a true rookie at something else when you’ve already done something to a certain extent in your life, to be 31 coming into something brand new,” he said.

A major theme in the series is how Shannon doesn’t want to end up a gangster’s moll, like her mother. Laura Fraser, who plays Shannon’s mother, discussed the feminist aspect of the series. “I think my character was just coming to the realisation that she didn’t have any control on the levers anymore…she constructed this whole identity and she never once considered where the money was actually coming from,” she said.

Filming the series was a creatively fulfilling experience for all. “Time of my life, honestly,” Carner enthused. “Free, collaborative, and exciting. You know, what a dream to be able to do something like this and for it to feel fun…to accept what it is and actually find the joy within it because I think that Charlie’s very good at that, and it shows. But you feel it when you do it, because we’re doing things that are kind of magical.”

Laird shared similar sentiments: “Being on this set taught me how I want to be on every other set…It was like an education on how to have fun and also do hopefully great work.”

Antonia Georgiou

Mint is released on BBC iPlayer on 20^th April 2026.

Watch the trailer for Mint here: