The upcoming Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comics is one of the most hotly-anticipated shows of 2022 – and one of its stars has teased the “extraordinary” scale and detail of the project.
Unforgotten‘s Sanjeev Bhaskar, who will play Cain in the fantasy series, told RadioTimes.com that he was blown away by what he saw during filming.
In an exclusive interview to discuss his role in the new season of Secrets of the Transport Museum, Bhaskar said: “I’ve only got a couple of scenes in [The Sandman], but I have not worked on anything of that kind of scale before.
“We shot one day in the studio and a couple of days on location, and in the studio the sets they were building – just walking around, I’d never seen anything like it.
“It was just extraordinary in terms of scale, in terms of the detail, in terms of just how true to the comics, you know, to the spirit of the comics they’re trying to be.”
He added that working with green screen, and indeed working on a fantasy series at all, were relatively new experiences for him, and he went on to praise the craftsmanship behind creating the look of the show.
“From the physical craftsmanship of carpenters and metal workers and electricians and everything, through to the fellow actors and the directors. I’m pretty excited about it,” he said.
“I mean, I didn’t know much about Sandman before I got involved, and so it was only when I was announced as being part of it on Twitter that I kind of realised quite how deep and broad the fanbase is.”
Although he might not have had much prior knowledge of The Sandman itself, Bhaskar does have previous experience of working with Gaiman – having appeared briefly in the first season of Good Omens – and said he’s a big fan of his work in general.
“I’ve kind of known him on and off about 10 years,” he explained. “And I just love this stuff. There’s a quirkiness to it which I think makes it quite uniquely British, in that you’ve got these fantastical stories that go into these other realms, but there’s a kind of thread of humour through all of them.
“He takes some of those great traditions of suspense, mystery, and even Tolkien and people like that, but also combines it with a kind of Python-esque sensibility, like Douglas Adams in a way.”
The Sandman will stream on Netflix – check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide. To stay up to date, visit our Fantasy hub for all the latest news.
Meanwhile, Sanjeev Bhaskar’s Secrets of the Transport Museum airs on the Yesterday channel every Tuesday at 8pm.