White Lies is a South African / British murder mystery television drama series set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, in which an investigative journalist gets caught up in the ugly underbelly that lies beneath the picturesque beauty of the city, dragging her back to a turbulent past.
Starring Natalie Dormer as Edie Hansen and Brendon Daniels as Detective Forty Bell, White Lies is a whodunnit murder mystery and an unpredictable drama about a community coming face to face with its own secrets and lies.
Investigative journalist Edie Hansen is stunned by the murder of her estranged brother, Andrew McKenzie, in his Bishopscourt mansion during a home invasion.
Edie's world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother's teenage children become prime suspects for the crime.
She sets out to find the killer, working with – and when necessary, against – the local police.
As she hunts the killer across the complicated, beautiful city of Cape Town, crossing from the leafy suburbs to the city centre, from the slopes of the mountain to the ganglands and back again, she uncovers a charismatic evil that knows no boundaries.
She finds herself at loggerheads with Detective Forty Bell, a damaged 20-year veteran of the force with a legitimate grudge against her, a man fighting his own demons, and losing his own battles within an incompetent and crumbling police force.
Major cast members include Daniel Schultz as Daniel McKenzie, Morgan Santo as Jaime McKenzie, Langley Kirkwood as Andrew McKenzie, Caely-Jo Levy as Olivia McKenzie, Daniel Janks as Avi Kapilevitch, Warrick Grier as Werner Weber and Athenkosi Mfamela as Peri Zondo.
White Lies was created by Sean Steinberg and is a co-production between Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle.
White Lies is produced by Harriet Gavshon and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures, with Natalie Dormer and Darrel Bristow-Bovey also serving as executive producers.
Oher executive producers include Nomsa Philiso, Georginah Machiridza, Waldimar Pelser, Nicola van Niekerk, Allan Sperling, Bob Conte and Julie Hodge.
The series' lead director is John Trengove, with directors including Thati Pele, Catharine Cooke and Christiaan Olwagen.
Julie Hodge is executive producing on behalf of Fremantle, who is also distributing the series internationally.
The story is by Darrel Bristow-Bovey and Joanna Simon.
The music composers are Charl-Johan Lingenfelder and Edward George King.
The working title of the show was Dark Hearts.
Main Characters
Edie Hansen (Natalie Dormer)
Edie Hansen has dedicated her life to the pursuit and exposure of the truth, but she conceals her own secrets beneath an abrasive sense of humour and personal walls as high as any around the grand homes of Bishopscourt.
But the day of her brother's murder is also the day she discovers that she is three months pregnant with a baby she neither expects nor wants.
Over the course of the next eight episodes, all the defences she has built against the world are going to crumble, one by one.
Detective Fortune 'Forty' Bell (Brendon Daniels)
Fortune Bell has been around the block.
Formerly a detective with the Hawks, he was demoted after bungling a high-profile murder investigation that led him to relapse into past bad habits, including a gambling addiction that emerges at times of stress.
Forty is an honest cop and an honourable man, but he gives nothing of himself to the world, in contrast to his home life with his wife and daughters, where he is the very best version of himself.
He is stricken with guilt for the suffering he has inflicted on them, and his desire to do what's best for them comes in conflict with his loathing of the rich and powerful, who do what they please without consequence.
Daniel McKenzie (Daniel Schultz) & Jaime McKenzie (Morgan Santo)
Daniel is the golden boy: handsome, athletic and popular.
Everything comes easily to him, but he cares too much what other people think of him; appearances mean more to him than any authentic sense of self, and he is haunted by a responsibility to the family name, and to his father's expectations for his future.
Daniel adores his shy younger sister Jaime, who is struggling to emerge from a sense of her mother's disapproval and disappointment.
He is very protective of her, especially following the murder when she is in danger of collapsing into herself, and most especially when he becomes aware of the attentions of their creepy neighbour, Robert Weber (Brandon Jones).
Andrew McKenzie (Langley Kirkwood)
Outwardly Andrew is a lot of fun: intelligent, witty, a little flirty, funny.
But he is driven too relentlessly to achieve, and to overcome his own hidden humble origins.
He is a hollow man who has spent most of his life faking it 'til he makes it, and that has cut him off from genuine intimacy or connection with even those closest to him.
He is so afraid of losing what he has gained, and being seen for who he is, that he exerts intense control over everything in his life – including his family.
Olivia McKenzie (Caely-Jo Levy)
Olivia is Daniel and Jaime's mother and wife to Andrew McKenzie.
She is the daughter of a wealthy Cape Town family that lost its money and tumbled down the social ladder, and she grew up determined to return to the wealth and status of a Bishopscourt lifestyle.
She has a permanent sense of life owing her more than it has given her, and her deep feeling of neglect and emptiness drives her to look for comfort in the least expected of places.
Werner Weber (Warrick Grier)
Werner Weber is a wealthy German businessman who has been living in South Africa for the past 20 years.
He divorced his first wife shortly after the birth of their son Robert, paid her off and assumed custody from her, and there have been four wives since.
His current wife is Nonzi, a former beauty queen, now trapped in her gilded cage.
He is meticulous, orderly and incredibly arrogant, amuses himself at the expense of other people and doesn't care what they think of him.
He may be the only person in Bishopscourt who always tells the truth.
Avi Kapilevitch (Daniel Janks)
Avi is an advocate with his own small law firm.
He is sincere and serious in his intentions, but wry and playful in his manner.
He defends Daniel and Jaime against the accusation of murder, but he has romantic history with Edie: she loves him for his kindness and generosity of heart, and the fact that he can make her laugh, even when she's at her most angry and defended.
He takes her seriously, but he sees through what she says and how she presents to what really matters.
Peri Zondo (Athenkosi Mfamela)
Constable Zondo is a hard-working, serious young man who has come from extreme poverty and overcome many challenges.
He is a rookie policeman with no confidence in himself - his search for a mentor leads him to Forty, but can the damaged senior detective live up to Peri's expectations?