Kay Mellor, the writer behind TV hits The Club and The Syndicate, has written a new series about a local council Registrar who finds herself increasingly torn by the endless responsibilities of being a modern working mother.
Commissioned for BBC One, the six-part Love, Lies and Records is set in Leeds and follows Registrar Kate Dickinson whose dream promotion to Superintendent quickly increases the pressures of daily life.
Her daughter’s hiding suspicious messages on her mobile, her son hates her because she’s bought him the wrong trainers and now her stepson’s turned up unannounced to stay.
As Kate tries to hold her work, life and relationship together, things go from complicated to impossible when a disgruntled colleague threatens to expose a secret from her past.
The series explores how women in particular have to juggle their lives. Kate has reached the top of her profession but with everything she’s worked for in jeopardy, can she sustain herself when it’s not just her job that’s on the line?
Mellor, who will executive produce the series through Rollem Productions, said the idea for the series “came to me when I was registering my mother’s death at Leeds Town Hall, closely followed by a friend’s wedding in the very same place.”
“I remembered registering the birth of both of my daughters there too, and I realised that the Register Office and registrars really are at the very heart of life. It’s a place of laughter, tears and great drama.”
The writer said that while she’d “love to do another series” of In The Club and The Syndicate both series “are on hold for now,” news which is set to disappoint millions of fans.
However, she added: “It’s lovely to be working on a fresh idea and I’ve got all the support from the BBC. They seem to trust me to just get on with it and then will dive in with a brilliant note or thought.”
Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, commented: “The genius that is Kay Mellor puts one woman at the centre of her new BBC One series, and brilliantly captures contemporary British life as she juggles a complex personal life with a world of births, marriages and deaths.”