The BBC on Tuesday unveiled casting additions for its upcoming romantic comedy-drama series Film Club, including Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster, Gentleman Jack, Vigil) and Nabhaan Rizwan (Kaos, In Camera, 1917).
The screenwriting debut from actors Aimee Lou Wood (Daddy Issues, Sex Education, White Lotus season 3) and Ralph Davis (House of the Dragon season 2, Othello) is described as a “piercingly funny and utterly heart-warming” six-part series by Gaumont for BBC iPlayer and BBC Three. Fremantle is handling global sales.
“Film Club Week 198. Evie hasn’t left the house in six months after a ‘wobble’, and Film Club is her escape,” reads a synopsis. “A weekly chance to create a world of wonder, deck the garage out in whatever the movie calls for and spend a few uninterrupted hours with Noa – her best friend and one of the few mates who still shows up.
But tonight, things are different. Noa’s got big news. A dream job is taking him across the other side of the country, which means that all of this is ending. That reality is hitting. That they’re going to be forced to consider for the first time they might be more than just friends.”
Wood was previously announced as playing Evie, with Rizwan now cast as Noa. Jones will play Suz, Evie’s eccentric and unconventional mother. Also joining the cast are Adam Long (Happy Valley, Masters of the Air) as Evie’s boyfriend Josh, and Liv Hill (Three Girls, The Serpent Queen) as her sister Izzie. Co-creator Davis will play Dominic, Film Club’s newest member.
Film Club is a witty and emotional show about love and family, about whether we should follow our hearts or heads, and being in love with a friend.
“I’m thrilled that our beloved TV series Film Club, a project that Ralph and I have been writing for the past decade, starts shooting this week,” said Wood. “We couldn’t be more excited, and grateful, to the incredible team we have assembled with the BBC. To bring this to life with Nabhaanand Suranne, two exceptional actors I have always admired, is a real honor.”
Said Rizwan: “I’m excited, I feel relaxed and I’m ready… to parrrtaaayyy with the best of them!
Added Jones: “I’ve loved Aimee for a while now and think she is a beautifully real, honest and brilliantly funny talent, so it was no surprise the script she and Ralph Davis have created was the same. It’s smart, sweet and punchy. I can’t wait to be her tiger mum… and I get to film in my home town too.”
The series has started filming in Manchester and is set to debut next year on the BBC in the U.K. and later on ZDFneo in Germany.
Stella Merz (Gentleman Jack, Renegade Nell) has joined the series of six 30-minute episodes as producer, and Catherine Morshead (Daddy Issues, The Full Monty) will direct it. Executive producers are Wood, Alison Jackson and Jamie Jackson for Gaumont, and Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC.
