polly hill - H 2015
Courtesy of Polly HillU.K. TV giant ITV has ordered Desire, a five-part drama serial written by Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland).
ITV head of drama Polly Hill has commissioned the show from production firm Mammoth Screen. Desire was developed by Rebecca Keane, Mammoth’s creative director, and the company’s Damien Timmer and Julia Stannard (War and Peace) will executive produce it.
The story focuses on Leia, “who is just about managing to hold her life together in the face of a messy divorce when she finds herself falling in love with an intensity she’s never experienced before,” according to a plot summary. “It’s the wrong man at the wrong time, but Leia can’t give the relationship up. Desire looks at what happens when a passion is so powerful it starts to jeopardize your job, your home, and even your kids.”
Said Hill: “I am so thrilled to be working with Jeremy. Desire is such a beautiful and compelling story, dealing with the intense passion of a new relationship, the tricky and messy business of divorce and the ultimate love for your children. I am proud to be making this with Mammoth Screen for ITV.”
Brock said: “For a long time, I’ve wanted to write about what it feels like to be a parent, to try and balance the unconditionality of parental love with the shock of adult passion. Our values are bound up with our identity…children, family, work, love, our ideologies. I wanted to write about what happens when all these lights, by which we steer, are suddenly torn away and we are offered the stark choice: adapt or risk losing everything.”
He added: “It’s a huge privilege to be given the opportunity to write this big, passionate, messy slice of contemporary life, and I look forward to working with Polly Hill at ITV and with Mammoth Screen.”
Desire will be filmed in Sheffield this summer. Details of casting will be revealed closer to the start of filming. The series will be distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
