Franz Ferdinand go undercover

Franz Ferdinand play “detectives and double agents” in their new video, its director has revealed.

Scott Lyon, who also handled their debut ‘Darts Of Pleasure’ clip in 2003, is currently in post-production with the video to forthcoming single ‘Walk Away’.

The clip takes its inspiration from the classic British cinema of the 1950s.

“There is a feeling of those Ealing comedies in the video. It’s set in the late 50s and it’s partially in black and white, partially in colour, and it takes place on those old film sets," Lyon told MTV.

“But there’s also lots of film-noir touches to the video. Lots of blacks and whites. And Alex had a list of films that he wanted the video to reference: A lot of lesser-known Hitchcock films, like 'Rebecca' or 'The 39 Steps'. Michael Powell’s 'Peeping Tom', 'The Third Man'. It’s classically influenced and more cinematic than their previous videos.”

Lyon also explained how the video follows the same narrative of the song: “It’s a narrative video, but it’s going to take quite a few watches to get the full story. The song is a love story, but something is obviously not quite right with it. It’s got a kind of sinister edge to it. It’s very much done in different tones.

“Sometimes when Alex sings ‘I love the sound of you walking away’, it’s a compliment. Other times it’s a fuck off. And the video is like that, though I don’t know how it’s going to end. It could go either way – and right now I don’t know which way it’s going to go.”

Franz Ferdinand’s second album ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ went straight in at Number One in the UK album charts yesterday (October 9).