BAFTA-awarded Film and TV Editor Nick Arthurs BFE (The Witcher, A Discovery of Witches and The Alienist), has been announced as a Development Producer to help Checklist Films craft its newly announced six-part drama, The Iron Rose.
Inspired by true events, The Iron Rose is an epic Victorian saga that chronicles the dramatic lives of iron and steel pioneer Robert Forester Mushet and his family as they fight to make and retain their fortune in 1800’s industrial Britain.
The West Midlands-based production company claims this “little-known slice of history is set to grip audiences across the globe”.
The Iron Rose is created by Keith Thomas and written by John F. McDonald. Executive Producers are Hakam Poselay and Keith Thomas. The series will shoot and feature locations from across Gloucestershire, including the Forest of Dean.
Hakam Poselay, CEO and Executive Producer, Checklist Films, said: “We couldn’t be happier to have Nick Arthurs as a Development Producer on The Iron Rose. Not only does he have an incredibly extensive background in acclaimed high-end drama, but he shares the same passion as us to tell fascinating and little-known stories on an epic scale. His vision and wealth of experience will hugely enrich the drama, and his enthusiasm for the project demonstrates that The Iron Rose is already attracting talent of an exceptional calibre.”
Nick Arthurs said: “The fortunes and misfortunes of the Mushet family is a saga of family feuds, love affairs, sex and greed in the grand tradition of Poldark and Succession. It’s a rich and layered story that has fascinated West Country residents for years but is relatively unknown beyond this. However, I believe The Iron Rose has all the traits of a tantalising saga that could run for multiple seasons, and I’m delighted to have been invited by Hakam and Checklist Films to help with and advise on the project’s development.”
Poselay added: “I recently spoke at the Film & TV industry networking event Reel Brum, and it became clear that there was huge sadness about the BBC’s decision to cancel Doctors, which is made in Birmingham. I heard from many incredibly talented production crew and actors how proud they are to work in Birmingham and the Black Country, and while the ending of Doctors is a blow, there is so much more for the West Midlands to offer. The production of The Iron Rose is creating huge excitement in the area – not only to champion a local story and the talented crews and actors but it will also bring us one step closer to making Birmingham the next UK ‘Film City’.”
Produced by Checklist Films, The Iron Rose is being developed as a 6×60′ returning period drama series. Told through the eyes of Robert Forester Mushet from his youth, it’s a story of love, hate, loyalty and jealousy, ambition and despair, deception and dishonour, during a time when Britain was rapidly changing, and families strived – and feuded – to stay ahead or get forgotten about in the annals of time.
Descending from a family of power spanning generations, Robert Forester Mushet is an ambitious man, obsessed with the innovative and technological advances of the industrial age, and making a name for himself. He risks it all, putting his personal happiness and fortune on the line to pioneer the next big thing. But as success descends upon the family, he soon tastes the betrayal and deceit as other ambitious men circle to capitalise on his inventions and finds himself battling the dreaded Mushet curse, which plagues his family.
Michael Burns
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