BBC – Desperate Romantics

BBC website with zoom technology and short videos

The broadcast drama

Desperate Romantics was a six part BBC period drama focussing on an influential art movement called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. With a glossy look, and young vibrant cast, Desperate Romantics was a character-driven romp through the alleyways, studios, brothels and chop-houses of 19th century London.

Client feedback

“Cogent’s creative work excited our team and was true to the look and feel of the drama. They gave us a platter of initial designs that were thoughtful, different and opened up many possibilities and routes to go down.”

Danny Whitfield, Online Producer, BBC

The concept for an on-line experience

In addition to the conventional broadcast the BBC wanted to develop an innovative and distinctive way to present its online content around the drama in line with its mission for Future Media and Technology. They wanted to create a way to allow the user to interact with high resolution zoomable images of the paintings featured in the drama through a web browser

Bringing it to reality

Cogent Design was commissioned to bring this concept to reality both technically and in line with the Desperate Romantics branding and look and feel . The brief was to provide a rich user experience incorporating video clips and expert commentary sound tracks but also to ensure ease of use for a wide audience.