Brand new Channel 4 drama ‘Utopia‘ starts tonight (15th Jan), so I just wanted to give you a bit of background, as I think it’ll be one worth watching. Dennis Kelly is probably best know for being co-writer of the critically acclaimed Matilda the Musical (with the brilliant Tim Minchin), and for his BBC Three sitcom ‘Pulling’, but his new show Utopia takes you to an altogether darker place.
The story revolves around a legendary graphic novel called ‘The Utopia Experiments’, which brings together 5 comic book fans from an online forum, who agree to meet after then gain possession of the cult story’s original manuscript. IT dropout Ian (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett from ‘Misfits’), student Becky (Alexandra Roach – ‘Hunderby’, ‘The Iron Lady’) and conspiracy theorist Wilson (Adeel Akhtar from the brilliant ‘Four Lions’) meet in a pub only to be greeted by 2 manic henchmen who have already killed the 4th member of their fan group, and are pursuing the 5th – 11yr old Grant, who flees having witnessed the murder, taking the manuscript with him…
As time moves on Ian, Becky and Wilson find their lives being turned upside-down, with them being framed for crimes they haven’t committed. The 3 find themselves relentlessly pursued by a shadowy unit called ‘The Network’ who will stop at nothing to keep its origin, and meaning secret…
You can find out more at here.
Utopia airs tonight (15th Jan 2013) on Channel 4 at 10pm
