A+E Networks EMEA has commissioned Redeeming Features, Century Films and GroupM Motion Entertainment, to make a 2×60’ historical investigative series The Guilty Innocent with Christopher Eccleston, which will premiere on Sky HISTORY in May 2024.
In his first ever presenting role Eccleston will examine two highly controversial cases, both of which captured the public imagination and sparked major campaigns for social justice.
Marking the fifty-year anniversary of the arrest of minicab driver George Davis for the armed payroll robbery of the London Electricity Board in Ilford, Essex, Eccleston talks to those who campaigned tirelessly for Davis’ release and for his conviction to be overturned. In a TV exclusive Davis will break his fifty-year silence with his first ever long form TV interview. The series also re-examines the highly controversial case of James Hanratty one of the last men to be hanged in Britain, for the murder of Michael Gregsten and attempted murder of Valerie Storie, in August 1961. Eccleston retraces the extraordinary twists-and-turns of this notorious case, and the evidence which put Hanratty’s neck in the hangman’s noose on 4th April, 1962, sparking a concerted campaign to end capital punishment in the UK.
Christopher Eccleston said: “The pursuit of justice is a subject matter which has peppered my career with dramas that remain special to me and have, in their own way, swayed public opinion. The Guilty Innocent is another project which pursues justice, or the lack of it, through a new medium which has allowed me to explore another means of storytelling.”
The series was commissioned, and executive produced by Dan Korn, VP of Programming at A+E Networks EMEA, with Diana Carter, Commissioning Editor and Head of Talent at A+E Networks EMEA.
This new series is created by actor and filmmaker Nathanael Wiseman and is produced by Victoria Williams Co-CEO of Redeeming Features and Exec Produced by Brian Hill for Century Films, and Deep Sehgal for GroupM Motion Entertainment.
Dan Korn, VP of Programming said, “With the criminal justice system under ever greater scrutiny, there has never been a more important time to re-examine historic cases which sparked popular activism and widespread campaigning for change. And with his passion and presence, there is no one better than Christopher Eccleston to take us back to the sights and sounds of Britain in the 1960s and ‘70s”.
Victoria Williams, Producer and Co-CEO of Redeeming Features said, “In the wake of the Horizon scandal, there’s never been a better time to examine miscarriages of justice, so we are all really excited to be making this gripping new series for A&E .From the new season of ‘True Detective’ to ‘Our Friends In The North’ and ‘Doctor Who’, Christopher Eccleston is one of the best British actors working today, so to see him investigate these stories and bring them to life is a dream come true.”
The Guilty Innocent with Christopher Eccleston premieres on Sky HISTORY in May 2024.
Jon Creamer
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