New ITV thriller begins shooting in the North West - North West Media News

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New ITV thriller begins shooting in the North West

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Friday, 16 May 2008

Manchester and Liverpool will be two of the settings for new ITV-commissioned drama, Wired which has just started filming.

The three part thriller will star Jodie Whittaker (Venus, St Trinians), Toby Stephens (Jane Eyre, Die Another Day), Laurence Fox (Lewis) and Charlie Brookes (Eastenders).

It’s set around a £250m internet bank fraud where the thieves target an unsuspecting single mum to place her at the heart of the conspiracy.

The production has been written by Kate Brooke, produced by Rebecca Hodgson (Vincent, Dead Clever) and directed by Kenny Glenaan (Spooks, Cops, Buried).

Executive Producer Sita Williams said, “Wired is a dark thriller which will keep the viewer guessing until the final conclusion.

"I'm delighted with the casting as Jodie is our ideal heroine, and Toby is perfect as the inscrutable Crawford. We also have the added coup of securing Laurence Fox and Charlie Brookes in key roles."

www.itv.com

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Comments (13)

1 By anon, on 17-05-2008 07:52
Toby Stephens (not 'Smith') is the actor who starred in 'Jane Eyre' and 'Die Another Day' and is an excellent choice for any challenging role.

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2 By anon, on 19-05-2008 14:11
Hi Mrs Stephens

*waves*

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3 By Hugga Huddy, on 19-05-2008 20:49
Again, who cares? I still think these celeb-y stories about departing soap stars and lame ITV vehicles for ex-soap stars are really tenuous for this site. It's just a London production that happens to be shot in the North West. Big deal!

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4 By Cheese, on 19-05-2008 22:34
Try telling that to North West Vision, the NWDA, all the equipment teams, contractors, caterers and everyone else involved in these productions Hugga.

Your opinion is your opinion and that's fine, but a major production taking place in the North West is important to me - as a member of the broadcast industry here - and certainly relevant for a NW media site.

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5 By And, on 20-05-2008 12:22
It's a big money production (a few million £ certainly) and it's as relevant and interesting as 'which agency has won the contract to do the business cards for some new estate agents' in Bolton'.

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6 By Hugga Huddy, on 21-05-2008 20:03
Good points I guess

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7 By Em, on 05-06-2008 23:53
I would also like to add that this is no *lame* drama just with washed up soap stars, I take offence at that.

Toby Stephens is an amazing, accomplished actor, he has one numerous theatre awards & is phenomenal on stage, screen & silver-screen. This drama is not some vehicle for the cast of soaps, it sounds like a well written, serious drama with a serious cast. Please do not be insulting about that and any money it brings to the local area.

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8 By drama fan, on 06-06-2008 09:56
Why must all ITV primetime dramas either be about gritty, quirky cops or heartwarming gushy characters like Kingdom, midwives or Yorkshire Bobbies and nurses. Where is teh talent that once spawned Armchair Theatre, Sunday Night Theatre and all the midweek plays. If ITV bosses read the three volumes of Climes James tv reviews they would see that the main channels regualrly turned out quality drama every week. But of course that took brains on the part of controllers and schedulers. Much more difficult than just doing Prime Suspect part 96.
Why not do a quality drama series like Upstairs Downstairs or Country Matters. (Younger readers can look this up on the internet).

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9 By Hugga Huddy, on 06-06-2008 11:35
Em, I get the point about this production bringing cash to the northwest but, believe me, this drama WILL be lame.

ITV dramas either have Ross Kemp running into petrol explosions or some hairdresser from Corrie playing a brain surgeon in a love triangle.

Advertisers left ITV in droves because their controllers think viewers are brain dead. This won't change any time soon.

Toby Stephens may be a brilliant star of stage and screen, but these 'pot boilers' pay off his Surrey mansion's mortgage.

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10 By Frutiger Black, on 06-06-2008 11:41
Ratings, DramaFan, ratings. Even the dear old Beeb is largely driven by sales these days - flogging series to overseas networks, merchandise, DVDs, soundtracks, tie-in books, computer games, blah - no ratings, no second series. Cops and docs provide reliable drama contexts, and especially shrewd (cynical?) production cos will hit both (Heartbeat/Royal, Holby City/Blue). It's perfectly possible to do something of old-fashioned quality and imagination, however (Life on Mars), and if the NW benefits hugely, regardless of the production co's address, let's have it, thanks very much.

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11 By Dramafan, on 06-06-2008 17:51
OK, ratings may be the current obsession in this multimedia age, but who watches drama these days on the mainstream channels?
ITV's digital channels are showing wall-to-wall repeats of ITV's glorious output from the 70s and 80s. Even the mass escapement such as Rumpole and Minder was quality drama which attracted viewers across the spectrum and advertisers alike. Granada even had a trade ad campaign in the mid-80s saying that "It's not all Coronation Street up north", pointing out that some upmarket folk live in posh Cheshire villages.
By going for the current mindless output they have sacrificed the claim to serve AB audiences. As the late Tony Wilson used to say: even if a million flies land on a lump of shit it is still a lump of shit.
I liked the comment by the character played by Mark Benton in the second series of The Street which said that people were given "Eastenders and Corrie shite." This was in a programme made by Granada and shown on the Beeb, perpetrators of the very same Eastenders and Corrie shite. Jimmy McGovern was spot on as usual. And Granada wonder why Corrie got no Bafta nominations. Instead of the soaps getting so many award ceremonies they should be cut down to one episode per week.
Twenty years ago the IBA would have been spitting blood at the current output, today Ofcom is a toothless, supine watchdog.
Only rare exceptions count as quality, such as Foyle's War and He Shoots Cops (two more cop shows, sadly).

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12 By Larking, on 18-06-2008 19:58
"Meeeeooow, giz a bit !", said the cat. So i gave him my streaky bacon and he ran offfffff into the sunset with a warm smile on his face.
Meanwhile, back at the debate...Bring more productions to the North West, especially Liverpool, it's the greatest city on earth.
Later that evening the cat with the streaky bacon was seen on a roof with three other cats taking part in some anti-social behaviour activities and throwing spam at each other.

The End.

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13 By Larking, on 22-06-2008 18:49
"meeeOOOW, I do believe my balls have dropped", said the spam dealing cat. So off he went to become a big time spam dealer. A couple of months past and he'd ran out of spam so he had to go back to selling streaky bacon on the mean streets of Liverpool again. Any hooooo, meanwhile, back at the Batcave, Robin was still dressed in his crotchless body stocking getting spanked and called man bitch by the butler. I do hope more people come to this thread, it's so exciting !!! isn't it !!!!

Anyway, Toby Stephens and i go waaaay back. I remember the time Toby and i were driving along a country lane in our skoda and we came across a cat who was wearing leather slacks and he was twisting his right nipple as he scowled at us for no apparent reason. It later became apparent that the reason for his scowling was because Toby and i were actually wearing the same slacks from the same store, how gay ! Anyway, back to the drawing board. I do hope someone somewhere has got some spam for that poor cat, he's on a downward spiral without his gear.

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