Channel 4 has announced a new drama which tells the story of a fictional English market town devastated by a spate of shootings which take place over a single day
Directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) in his British television drama debut, Southcliffe starts principle photography next month and will be broadcast in 2013.
Confirmed cast members include Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror), Eddie Marsan (Tyrannosaur), Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina), Kaya Scodelario (Wuthering Heights), Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones), Sean Harris (Promethius) and Nichola Burley (Wuthering Heights).
The drama will explore tragedy, grief, responsibility and redemption seen through the eyes of a journalist returning to the small town of his childhood, and those closest to the victims of the tragedy.
Writer Tony Grisoni says; “The inexplicable chain of events at the dark heart of this four-part drama shatters time and space for Southcliffe’s inhabitants. Violence and sudden bereavement confronts them with emotions they are unequipped to understand.
“Rather than analyse or moralise about our characters’ actions, we share in them. Southcliffe is an anthem to ordinary people’s ability to reinvent themselves in the face of ultimate darkness.”