Big Talk Makes The Town For ITV
The Town is Big Talk’s first 60-minute drama commission and is also the first TV series by Laurence Olivier award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett. Andrew Scott will star alongside Julia McKenzie, Charlotte Riley, Gerard Kearns, Kelly Adams and Martin Clunes.
The plot centres on 30 year-old Mark Nicholas (Andrew Scott) who returns to the town where he grew up. After ten years away, coming home is harder than he could have imagined. He always had a strained relationship with his parents, his grandmother Betty (Julia McKenzie) is now living in his childhood bedroom and he barely knows his teenage sister.
Mark struggles to decide whether he should stay permanently to be with his family. But a new life is difficult to build in the place you used to call home and it now feels like you barely know it. “We’re thrilled to be making our first original drama series for ITV. At the heart of The Town will be a family struggling to come to terms with change. It’s also our hope to paint a picture of contemporary Britain through the magnifying glass of an ordinary market town. The story takes place in a landscape familiar to most of the UK,” said Big Talk CEO and The Town’s co-executive producer Kenton Allen.
The Town will be produced by Big Talk’s Luke Alkin and executive produced by Kenton Allen, Matthew Justice and Simon Curtis. Curtis introduced the project to Big Talk after identifying Bartlett as an exciting new writer via his work at the Royal Court Theatre. Colin Teague will direct.
The Town has been commissioned for ITV1 by Drama team Laura Mackie, Sally Haynes and Victoria Fea. “Mike Bartlett is a hugely exciting new talent,” said Mackie. “His characters are real and instantly engaging and his dialogue is natural and funny even in the darkest of moments.” The Town begins filming in High Wycombe from 17 June for six weeks. BBC Worldwide is handling International Distribution.
