In Production.
Channel 4 has commissioned award-winning playwright Roy Williams to adapt his acclaimed play Fallout as a single drama to TX in spring 2008 on Channel 4. Set in London, the drama will star Lennie James (Jericho, C4’s Buried) as Joe, a policeman returning to the estate he grew up on to investigate the murder of a black teenager. The drama will be directed by leading theatre director Ian Rickson (previously Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre) in his television debut and will be made by Company Pictures.
Williams’ script goes to the heart of the terrifying rise in high-profile gun and knife killings involving teenagers that has rocked Britain and particularly London this year.
When 16 year old, Kwame (Lanre Malaolu), is stabbed to death by a local gang, the lives, feelings and fears of the young perpetrators and the police officers investigating the crime are exposed in full. At a time when it has never been more important to understand why some of our youth would arm themselves and commit devastating acts of violence, Williams is unflinching in capturing the culture and circumstances that are wrecking young lives.
Fallout was written as a passionate and powerful reflection on race, law and order in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor cases and has been rewritten in light of the recent escalation in youth violence. It was revealed earlier this month that the number of young people prosecuted for firearms offences has risen by 20 per cent in the past five years.
Channel 4 has commissioned award-winning playwright Roy Williams to adapt his acclaimed play Fallout as a single drama to TX in spring 2008 on Channel 4. Set in London, the drama will star Lennie James (Jericho, C4’s Buried) as Joe, a policeman returning to the estate he grew up on to investigate the murder of a black teenager. The drama will be directed by leading theatre director Ian Rickson (previously Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre) in his television debut and will be made by Company Pictures.
Williams’ script goes to the heart of the terrifying rise in high-profile gun and knife killings involving teenagers that has rocked Britain and particularly London this year.
When 16 year old, Kwame (Lanre Malaolu), is stabbed to death by a local gang, the lives, feelings and fears of the young perpetrators and the police officers investigating the crime are exposed in full. At a time when it has never been more important to understand why some of our youth would arm themselves and commit devastating acts of violence, Williams is unflinching in capturing the culture and circumstances that are wrecking young lives.
Fallout was written as a passionate and powerful reflection on race, law and order in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor cases and has been rewritten in light of the recent escalation in youth violence. It was revealed earlier this month that the number of young people prosecuted for firearms offences has risen by 20 per cent in the past five years.