Channel orders four-parter from Warp Films.
This Is England team Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne are to create a four-part drama for Channel 4 (writes Broadcast).
Set to air in 2019, The Virtues (w/t) follows a troubled man who returns to Ireland to confront his childhood in the care system.
The 4 x 60-minute series is currently filming in Belfast, Sheffield and Liverpool, and will star This Is England and Taboo actor Stephen Graham alongside newcomer Niamh Algar.
Warp Films’ drama is written by Thorne and Meadows, who will also direct.
The production marks Meadows’ first directing and writing credit since 2015’s This Is England ‘90 - the third instalment of the long-running drama. Thorne has since penned The Last Panthers, National Treasure and an episode of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.
Producers include Mark Herbert and Nickie Sault. The series was commissioned by C4 head of drama Beth Willis.
Meadows said: “The Virtues takes the biblical, almost apocalyptic levels of revenge witnessed in [2004 crime thriller] Dead Man’s Shoes, along with the bittersweet humour from This is England and creates a landscape like nothing else I’ve ever worked on.”
Willis added: “We are so thrilled that the giant of a genius that is Shane Meadows has, with Mark Herbert, chosen Channel 4 to be the home of his next extraordinary story, world and unforgettable characters. This tender love story is complex and at times dark - but always shot through with heart and a large dose of humour.”
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