Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery is to guide Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s private drama This Town for the BBC.
Knight’s six-parter is rolling the cameras in Birmingham and has forged a string of different British actors together with Nicholas Pinnock (Marcella) and David Dawson (My Policeman).
Previously known as Two Tone, the present tells the story of an prolonged household and 4 younger people who find themselves drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music, which exploded from the grass roots of Coventry and Birmingham within the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, uniting black, white and Asian youths.
Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios is co-producer and can “bring in an exciting range of high profile musical artists to help lay the backdrop for Knight’s incredible story,” in response to the BBC. Mercury is co-producing alongside Banijay-backed Kudos and Nebulastar in affiliation with Kudos North, Stigma Films and Nick Angel.
“This is a project very close to my heart,” stated the prolific Knight, whose warfare drama SAS: Rogue Heroes is presently airing on BBC One.
“It’s about an era I lived through and know well and it involves characters who I feel I grew up with. It’s a love letter to Birmingham and Coventry but I hope people from all over the world will relate to it.”
Knight is creator, author and exec producer alongside Karen Wilson, Martin Haines, Katie McAleese, Jo McLellan, Laura Conway, Matthew James Wilkinson and Nick Angel. Paul Whittingon is director, Charlotte Surtees is producer and Banijay Rights is distributing internationally.
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