Based on Dorothey Koomson’s 2010 international best-seller of the same name, filming on the three-part series got underway in Bray, Co Wicklow, yesterday (August 27) with English director Dan Zeff (Lost in Austen, Case Histories) at the helm.
The six-week shoot is being produced for ITV by London-based production company Left Bank Pictures. The series is being produced in association with Dublin-based Octagon Films. The production is the first to be announced for Left Bank Pictures since Sony Pictures Television acquired a majority stake in the company last week.
Burroughs and May will play the lead roles of Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle while Compston, who was recently seen in acclaimed BBC thriller ‘Line of Duty’, will play their schoolteacher. Dona Croll (Family Affairs) also stars.
The story follows two teenage girls, who in the summer of 1995 are accused of murdering their schoolteacher. For 17 years, the two are forced to go their separate ways and lead very different lives before confronting each other in 2013.
Told in flashback, the story finds Serena married to GP Evan and they have their own 15-year-old daughter Vee. Poppy is living in quite different circumstances. Having served 17 years for a crime she still insists she didn’t commit, she has only one thing on her mind… the truth.
Television writer Kate Brooke (The Making of a Lady, Case Sensitive, Secret Smile) has adapted the three part seaside town-set drama.
Lucy Dyke (Married, Single, Other) will produce for Left Bank with Andy Harries (Wallander) and Charles Elton (Northanger Abbey) executive producing.
Swiss cinematographer Martin Fuhrer – who worked on Left Bank/ Octagon co-production ‘Loving Miss Hatto’ for the BBC earlier this year – is the director of photography. Irish crew include camera operator John Conroy (Dark Touch); line producer Mary McCarthy (Six Shooter); and production designer David Wilson (Earthbound)
Tiziana Corvisieri (Once) is the costume designer; Joni Galvin (Stella Days) is on make-up; and Lorraine Glynn (Murphy’s Law) is chief hair stylist.
Producer Lucy Dyke said she was “very excited to be in production on Kate Brooke’s captivating scripts”. She added: “We have a stellar cast in place, led by two strong women, and look forward to bringing this powerful emotional thriller to the screen for ITV1”.
The drama has been commissioned for ITV by drama commissioning team Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes.
