Long wait for 'Intersexions'

Fresh from sweeping the Saftas at the weekend, Intersexions director Rolie Nikiwe says fans will have to wait another year before the popular show returns.

So popular was the 25-part SABC1 drama series that only Generations - South Africa's most-watched soapie - pulled bigger audiences on most Tuesday nights.

"No, we're only at concept level right now - everything is still very premature to talk about. Ideally, we would be shooting in June or July but scripts are never ready on time," Nikiwe said yesterday.

The show owes its success to being more than just about the HIV/Aids pandemic.

With an entertaining story line, Intersexions had the intriguing tag line: "Do you know your lover's lovers?"

Nikiwe, who also worked on other popular local TV dramas, including Rhythm City, The Lab, A Place Called Home and Hard Copy, said Intersexions would be his primary project this year once he has completed working on Inside Story, a movie starring Fana Mokoena and Hakeem Kae-Kazim.

"It made me really proud that in categories such as best actor in a TV drama series all the nominees came from my hands. I feel like I put out some of the best performances on TV screens," Nikiwe said.

Thato Molamu (Tshepo), Katleho Ramapakela (Thami) and Siyabonga Radebe (Muzi) - all three from Intersexions - vied for the award for the best actor in a TV drama series. Radebe came out tops.

At the end of its debut season in April, Curious Pictures asked fans to submit scenarios for a new season and held writing workshops to develop scripts.

Asked if any of the scripts submitted had promise, Nikiwe said: "Right now, there are some looking quite reasonable, but we're very early into the development of season two. The only big thing is that [season two] needs to be better than season one. That's all."

Intersexions also won the titles best TV drama series, best director of a TV drama series, best actress in a TV drama series (Lungelo Dladla), best writing team of a TV drama series and best cinematographer for a TV drama series.