Life After Life indie House Productions is behind four-part drama Six Four, ordered by ITV’s head of drama Polly Hill.
The drama will premiere on ITV’s new, free streaming service ITVX in 2023, before transferring to linear transmission months later.
Inspired by the best-selling novel Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama and with screenwriting by Gregory Burke, the drama is set primarily in Glasgow, and is a story of kidnap, corruption, betrayal and a search for the truth, when Chris and Michelle O’Neill’s teenage daughter goes missing.
Serving police detective, Chris, played by Kevin McKidd, is provided with a revelation about an infamous, unsolved case that once divided the police when a local girl called Julie Mackie disappeared.
As Chris fights to make sense of what he discovers, his wife Michelle, played by Vinette Robinson, takes matters into her own hands in search of their daughter.
The cast of Six Four also includes Richard Coyle (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), James Cosmo (The Bay), Alex Ferns (The Irregulars), Iona Anderson (The Long Call), Andrew O’Neill and Nilani Chetty.
Gregory Burke’s credits include Entebbe starring Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl and ’71. Burke is the creator and lead writer on Six Four, working with Clare McQuillan who will also write on the series.
Gregory Burke says: “Six Four is a human story about two people under incredible amounts of pressure, who both choose to try and address their pasts. It is a story about how chance can define a lifetime, exploring the corruption that runs through institutions, and examining the secrets and monsters that lurk in every family.”
The director on Six Four is Ben A. Williams (Sherwood, Baghdad Central) and the producer is Clare Kerr (Karen Pirie, The Nest). Gregory Burke will be an executive producer and Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Molly Bolt are executive producers for House Productions. Polly Hill will oversee commission and production of the drama from ITV’s perspective. BBC Studios, who own House Productions, will distribute the series internationally.
Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross said: “Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four was a publishing phenomenon when it came out…. In relocating the action to Glasgow, Greg has brought an intricate knowledge and real sense of place of that beautiful city, immersing us in a visceral and gut-wrenching journey.”
Filming has commenced on location in Scotland.
House Productions is part of BBC Studios. Its recent TV productions include Life after Life; an adaptation of the Kate Atkinson bestseller from Bash Doran, directed by John Crowley and starring Thomasin MacKenzie for BBC One; Brexit – The Uncivil War, a single film by acclaimed playwright James Graham, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rory Kinnear and Trigonometry, from Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods which first aired on BBC Two and iPlayer in spring 2020, having sold across the world and included in the launch slate of HBO Max in the US.
The company has recently completed production on Sherwood; a crime drama written by James Graham soon to be on BBC One starring David Morrissey and Lesley Manville. They are also currently in production in Italy on The Good Mothers a Star Original for Disney+; a drama that offers a twist on the crime genre with the mafia seen entirely from the women’s perspectives, and in latter stages of development for The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle for Netflix; an adaptation of Stuart Turton’s novel. On the film side, psychological thriller, The Wonder, has finished filming and is a co-production with Element Pictures for Netflix. Currently in production is Starve Acre, a modern horror feature, based on the novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, from writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo, starring Matt and Morfydd Clark.
Pippa Considine
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