BBC calls Mayday

The BBC has cast Sophie Okonedo and Peter Firth in new five-part thriller Mayday, as it also renews two dramas to return next year.

The Syndicate

Mayday, produced by Shine-owned Kudos Film & Television (Spooks), is seen through the eyes of a group of central characters who each fear someone they know is responsible for the disappearance of a young girl.

Okonedo, Firth, Aidan Gillen and Lesley Manville will star in the drama, written by Whitechapel’s Ben Court and Caroline Ip. Filming starts next week in Dorking and the miniseries is due to air this autumn on BBC1.

Mayday was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC drama commissioning, and Danny Cohen, controller of BBC1. Kudos chief executive Jane Featherstone and the BBC’s Polly Hill will exec produce, Chris Fry (Spooks) will produce and Brian Welsh (Black Mirror) is directing.

Featherstone said Mayday is “a highly authored serial, which has attracted a brilliant cast and takes an original look at a familiar story. There are no police incident rooms, autopsies or crime scene investigations. Instead, this is about a town facing the reality that the killer is among them, one of them.”

Meanwhile, BBC1 has ordered second seasons of The Syndicate and Prisoners’ Wives.

The Syndicate, which completed its first run on Tuesday, follows the lives of five supermarket workers who win the lottery. Written by Kay Mellor and produced by her Rollem Productions, the new series following a new set of winners will air in 2013.

Prisoners’ Wives, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, focuses on the wives, girlfriends and mothers whose loved ones are in prison. The Endemol-owned production company took to Twitter to reveal: “We can now confirm that #Prisonerswives will return in 2013. Creator Julie Gearey is already ‘bursting at the seams’ with new stories.”

Earlier this month, BBC1 confirmed it was cancelling period drama Upstairs Downstairs after two seasons.