Channel 4 Sets New Six-Part Drama from ‘Line Of Duty’ Producers

Channel 4 has picked up a new six-part drama currently titled The Gathering from the acclaimed writer and director Helen Walsh.

Set on Merseyside, the drama focuses on a group of teens from disparate backgrounds, each of whom could have committed a crime, along with their parents – who give equal cause for suspicion. The series is produced by the award-winning World Productions, which is responsible for hits such as the BBC’s Line of Duty, Save Me, and Vigil.

“We are thrilled to be working with the brilliant Helen Walsh and World Productions on this exciting series; The Gathering which forms part of our strategy to commission drama which also appeals to younger viewers,” said Caroline Hollick, Head of Drama, Channel 4.

“Through this absorbing story, with Helen’s beautifully drawn, real, and relatable characters, the series looks at how family, friendship, and aspiration is influenced and shaped by the highs and lows of modern-day parenting. Exploring relevant and urgent themes around what it means to be a teenager, as well as a parent today, The Gathering is cleverly wrapped up in a compelling ‘whodunnit’ thriller, where the stakes are upped episode after episode.”

The show will center on Kelly, the series’ main protagonist and the victim of an attack, who straddles the very different worlds of two groups of teens portrayed in the series. Kelly is an accomplished tumbling gymnast, well on the pathway to Team GB but at odds with her teammates and their ultra-competitive parents. By contrast, Kelly also rolls with a group of urban free-runners, whose reckless lifestyle and exuberant free spirit is at odds with the discipline and restrictions Kelly experiences in the tightly controlled world of competitive sport.

“I wanted to write a twisty, state-of-the-nation take on Philip Larkin’s notorious ‘they f*ck you up’ observation about parents and kids,” said Helen Walsh, creator, and writer of the show.

“In an era where the micro-managing of children’s lives has become the new normal, The Gathering throws today’s surveillance parenting into sharp focus and asks who is really to blame when our kids f*ck up. I’m thrilled to be working with the excellent team at Channel 4 and World Productions and look forward to seeing the kinetic worlds of free-running and tumbling gymnastics brought to our screens.”

As a novelist, Helen Walsh won the Betty Trask award for Brass and the Somerset Maugham award for Once Upon a Time In England. In 2016, she picked up the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit award for her directorial debut The Violators, for which she also wrote the screenplay.

The Gathering was commissioned for Channel 4 by Caroline Hollick, Head of Drama, and Gwawr Lloyd, Commissioning Editor, Drama and is produced in association with ITV Studios which is handling international distribution. Casting details have yet to be announced.

World Productions Creative Director Simon Heath said: “We’re thrilled to be back on Channel 4, working with Caroline, Gwawr and their team to bring Helen’s brilliant scripts to the screen next year. Through the unfolding whodunnit of a violent assault at a teenage party, Helen unpacks the secret lives of teenagers and their dysfunctional modern parents.”