Stellar casting announced for Channel 4 drama Southcliffe

28 September 2012

Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror), Sean Harris (Prometheus), Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina), Eddie Marsan (Tyrannosaur), Anatol Yusef (Boardwalk Empire), Nichola Burley (Wuthering Heights), Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) and Kaya Scodelario (Wuthering Heights) have all been confirmed to star in Southcliffe; a stunning new four part drama from award-winning writer Tony Grisoni (Red Riding, The Unloved), produced by Warp Films for Channel 4.

Commissioned by Head of Drama, Piers Wenger, and directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) in his British television drama debut, Southcliffe tells the story of a fictional English market town devastated by a spate of shootings which take place over a single day. It explores 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.

Tony Grisoni says; "Southcliffe is a fictional market town inhabited by fictional characters, but with similarities to many actual people and places in Britain today. Invisible people, anonymous places. 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."

Piers Wenger adds; "Tony Grisoni's unique ability to convey the darkness and subtleties of human behaviour is in full evidence in these four brilliant scripts and I'm delighted that Warp Films and Tony have found a world class director like Sean Durkin to bring them to life."

Southcliffe is a Warp Films production in association with Borderline Films for Channel 4.

Directed by Sean Durkin, produced by Derrin Schlesinger (Four Lions) and executive produced by Peter Carlton (This is England) for Warp Films and Sophie Gardiner for Channel 4.  Southcliffe will start principle photography next month and be broadcast on Channel 4 in 2013.

Southcliffe DVD is coming soon courtesy of 4DVD.

 

 Press contact: Christina Joyce / Tim West, Premier

Christina.Joyce@premiercomms.com / Tim.West@premiercomms.com