Gripping newTV crime drama filmed in capital to air tonight
CHANNEL 4 unleashes its newest drama tonight, which stars Sarah Lancashire – and was filmed in Wales.
Kiri stars the Coronation Street and Happy Valley legend and was written by National Treasure and This is England ’86, ’88 and ’90 writer Jack Thorne, who also penned Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the West End.
The four-part drama examines the abduction and death of a young black girl, named Kiri, who is soon to be adopted by her white foster family, and the trail of lies, blame, guilt and notoriety that follows.
Filming took place in Cardiff last summer, when a section of King Edward VII Avenue, near Cardiff Central police station, was closed off.
Ms Lancashire plays Miriam, an experienced, no-nonsense social worker who loves and believes in her job, but has a maverick and instinctive approach to protecting the children in her care.
Miriam arranges for Kiri to have an unsupervised visit with her biological grandparents.
But when Kiri disappears during the visit, the fingers of suspicion and blame from the police, the press, and even her colleagues point firmly at Miriam.
As the media spotlight around the story intensifies, Miriam, and both sets of families, are forced to ask the toughest questions, not just of themselves, but of each other.
The new drama was made with Welsh Government support and was produced by The Forge, who made the decision to film in south-east Wales after successfully applying for Welsh Government Business Finance to part-fund the drama.
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said: “This is the second four-part serial for Channel 4 written by Jack Thorne, the first of which was filmed in Yorkshire, and I have no doubt that the production team’s decision to film in Wales was a direct result of the comprehensive package of support offered by the Welsh Government.
“Our support for Kiri was dependent on the production company spending a proportion of their production budget here in Wales, and this will have generated very real and tangible economic benefits in many of our communities.
“Indeed, over the last five years Welsh Government-funded film and TV productions like Kiri have spent in excess of £100m within Wales, and this has created over 2,000 full-timeequivalent job years, benefited local supply chains and supported hundreds of businesses based here.”
Kiri starts tonight at 9pm on C4