The BBC has announced ‘Shy & Lola’, a brand new darkly comic crime drama coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One, led by Hayley Squires (The Night Manager, I, Daniel Blake) and Bel Powley (A Small Light, The Diary of a Teenage Girl).
Written by Amanda Coe (Apple Tree Yard, The Trial of Christine Keeler), the six-part series follows two very different women who are forced into an uneasy alliance after a murder drags them into the criminal underworld of a small coastal town in the North of England.
Shy is a cleaner scraping by and dreaming of escape to Portugal. Lola is an ex-model turned grifter who blows into town with trouble snapping at her heels. What begins as a desperate scramble for survival soon turns into something far more ambitious, as the unlikely pair discover they might actually be rather good at crime. The big question becomes whether they take the money and run, or stay and seize control of the town’s murky power structure.
Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says:
“Shy and Lola are an unlikely duo, the classic odd couple, who get caught up in a murder – and that’s just the start of it. Amanda Coe’s superb scripts will surprise and amuse viewers in equal measure, and with Clerkenwell producing and Hayley and Bel leading the cast, BBC viewers are in for a real treat.”
Clerkenwell Films, the BAFTA and Emmy-winning company behind Baby Reindeer and The End of the F**ing World*, produces the 6 x 60 series. Filming is set to begin this spring in and around Hull and Leeds, giving the show a distinctly Northern backdrop that feels refreshingly specific rather than generically gritty.
Amanda Coe said:
“With such a rich and spiky central relationship at its core, Shy & Lola is a dream of a show to write, full of fun, action and emotion. I can’t wait to see our hugely exciting cast and director bring it to life.”
Rachelle Constant, Executive Producer for Clerkenwell Films, added:
“Amanda has written a brilliantly bold series centred on a dynamic female duo, which blends dark comedy with propulsive storytelling. We’re thrilled to have Hayley and Bel as our leads, alongside an exceptional cast and crew.”
The series is based on the French drama Cheyenne and Lola, written by Virginie Brac, but Coe’s adaptation looks set to carve out its own sharp, Northern identity. Additional episodes are written by Emilie Robson and Alys Metcalf, with Sam Donovan serving as lead director and Nadia Jaynes producing.
‘Shy & Lola‘ does not have a premiere date yet, but will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date. Visit Never Miss.
Photo credit: Hayley Squires (Image: Pip) and Bel Powley (Image: Brian Daly). Provided by the BBC.
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