Channel 4 boards crime drama starring Katherine Kelly

EXCLUSIVE: British broadcaster Channel 4 has shown a crime drama starring Katherine Kelly about a single mother who is blackmailed into drug smuggling.

Filming for the six-part series In flight is underway, with Kelly (Mr. Bates versus the Post Office, The long shadow) plays a stewardess who is forced to take desperate measures after her son’s arrest. In addition to Channel 4, Prosieben has acquired the rights for Germany, SBS for Australia and TVNZ for New Zealand. Fremantle handles international sales.

Mike Walden (Marcella, Smart pearl) and Adam Randall (Slow horses, iBoy), there are authors and Chris Baugh (wreck, Pewter Star) is the director. Buccaneer Media produced.

Kelly’s character, Jo Conran, is a single mother whose son is serving a 15-year sentence in a Bulgarian prison for a murder he swears he did not commit. When she is approached by a gang who know exactly about her situation, she is blackmailed into smuggling and forced into a world of corrupt police and hired killers to keep her child alive.

Also starring Stuart Martin as a key member of the Cimrinal gang, Ashley Thomas as a customs officer at a major London airport, as well as Bronagh Waugh, Harry Cadby, Corinna Brown and Ambreen Razia.

Filming will take place in locations including London, Bangkok, Bulgaria and Istanbul and will take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with financial support from Northern Ireland Screen.

Anna Burns, Tony Wood and Richard Tulk-Hart are executive producers for Buccaneer, while Rebecca Dundon and Simon Judd do the same for Fremantle alongside Walden, Randall and Baugh. Brendan Mullin is the producer and Gary Davy directed the casting.

“In flight is our take on the noir genre, a high-stakes, stylish romantic thriller with iconic characters and nail-biting action,” Walden and Randall said in a statement. “Channel 4 is the perfect home for our story and we’re delighted to be working with such a brilliant team. Jo is a character we care about. She is an ordinary woman faced with extraordinary adversity. We can’t wait for the audience to get to know her.”

Polly Scates, who acquired the show for Channel 4, said: “This unique crime drama will take our audience on a thrilling journey through terrifying worlds, but at the heart of this story is about how far a parent will go to protect their child “keep it safe.”

Channel 4 has increasingly looked to international co-production models to finance its dramas, such as crime dramas patience was added to the network via a similar model earlier this year, in part to offset rising commission costs.

“In a difficult time for the industry In flight shows the power of bringing a range of partners together to make a difference. So a big thank you to SBS, TVNZ, ProSieben and Fremantle for recognizing the potential of these scripts at such an early stage,” Buccaneer’s Tulk-Hart said.

Dundon, SVP of scripted content at Fremantle, said the series was a “surprising, propulsive standout” as a “high-stakes action crime thriller that combines the intensity of international drug smuggling with the emotional depth of a mother’s tireless quest to save her son connects.” ”