Dubai: After 27 years, 27 seasons and more than 7,000 episodes, long-running American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful will be set in the UAE. And in true Forrester style, the family the show centres around, it’s going to be big and loud.
With three main locations covering Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm, and the Burj Khalifa and Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, filming will spread across three days starting Monday, said the show’s executive producer and head writer, Bradley P. Bell, at a press conference in Dubai on Sunday.
“There will be a wedding and a massive action scene involving helicopters which will be one of the biggest stunts in the history of the series,” said Bell, whose parents, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, created the show which first premiered in 1987. “We are really trying to showcase Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We’re going to hit all the hotspots and show the world what’s going on here.
“We’re so thankful to our partners for giving us this opportunity and facilitating this.”
Bell credited actress Katherine Kelly Lang for initiating the UAE twist to the show. Lang, who plays Brook Forrester in the show, was also at the press conference at Atlantis, The Palm, along with Don Diamont, who plays Bill Spencer Jr, and Thorsten Kaye, who plays Ridge Forrester.
“Kelly wanted a few days off saying she wanted to travel to the UAE to do the Abu Dhabi Triathlon, and we thought, ‘That’s a great idea. Why don’t we all tag along and film there?’ Then we got talking and here we are,” said Bell.
Lang is one of the longest-serving characters on the show. “It started as a different kind of show. But once Bradley took over, he made it different and for all these years, we’ve managed to strike a chord, which is amazing,” said Lang.
“Sometimes the stories move a little fast. I like to have the stories last a bit longer but if the audience loves it, it’s fine,” she added. At which point Bell interjected: “She’s just mad because she’s had eight husbands.”
The Bold and the Beautiful was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2010 as the most popular daytime soap opera in the world, showing in more than 110 countries. The show airs in the UAE on Dubai One.
