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Titanic creator plots conspiracy thriller

Appropriate Adult writer Neil McKay is scripting a new three-part conspiracy drama for UK terrestrial Channel 4, to be produced by Titanic creator Nigel Stafford-Clark.

Titanic

Titanic

Stafford-Clark’s Deep Indigo Productions is behind the 3×90’ miniseries and McKay is currently writing the second episode.

The producer said the drama did not yet have a title and would not be drawn on plot details, but he drew comparisons to 1985 BBC drama Edge of Darkness, about a police inspector’s investigation into his daughter’s murder.

Stafford-Clark told C21: “I’ve always wanted to do a conspiracy thriller. It will be on a very big scale, about a huge subject but told through the eyes of individuals. On one level, it’s a human drama but the implications will be massive.”

McKay’s other credits include The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Mo and Heartbeat.

Stafford-Clark joined writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) at the premiere of forthcoming big-budget drama Titanic in London yesterday.

The £11m (US$17.5m) 4×60’ mini, made to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, follows the relationships between a mixture of real and fictional passengers and crew members.

It is due to launch on UK broadcaster ITV1 later this month and has been presold to 86 countries worldwide, including ABC in the US.

Fellowes, who described himself at the event as a “Titanorak,” said: “I knew this was my chance at the Titanic. There are certain disasters that seem to latch on to our psyche – such as Pompeii – but there aren’t very many of them.

“Titanic is the perfect disaster because it has everything in a very compact form. This one ship holds every element of this proud and self-confident society that was headed for a smash-up [the First World War] and the fact you take the world and shrink it into a bottle makes it very potent.”

Fellowes said he resisted any temptation to introduce characters from Downton Abbey, which began with news of the sinking, into his new project.

He said: “To me it feels like a very different show, but to quote Mandy Rice-Davies, ‘I would say that wouldn’t I.’ It has that multi-story arc, it’s a structure I like. I like the fact you’re having to concentrate on all these different stories happening at once.”

ITV Studios Global Entertainment and Lookout Point will host a gala screening of Titanic at MipTV on Sunday April 1.

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