CALIFORNIA AVENUE: FIRST LOOK AT NEW BBC DRAMA STARRING BILL NIGHY AND HELENA BONHAM CARTER

First-look pictures have been released of California Avenue, a new drama from BAFTA Award-winning writer and director Hugo Blick (The English, The Honourable Woman, Marion and Geoff) for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.

The series features a stellar cast of Bill Nighy (Living, About Time), Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown, Nolly), Erin Doherty (The Crown, Adolescence) and Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Souvenir), who are joined by Kate Robbins (After Life, Unforgotten), Paul Kaye (Small Prophets, Shardlake) and newcomer Cammie Liebreich.

Produced by Drama Republic (a Mediawan company), makers of One Day and Doctor Foster, California Avenue is a story brimming with humour and love.

Set in the 1970s in a secluded canal-side caravan park deep in the luscious English countryside, its peace is irrevocably disrupted by the arrival of Lela (Erin Doherty) and her 11-year-old child, Bee (Cammie Liebreich), both on the run, looking for refuge in this hidden world.

It is here that a fractured family will come together, ghosts of the past will firmly be put to rest and an unexpected love is forged. Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter star as Jerry and Eddie, Lela’s parents, ballroom champions of the 1930s who became wartime runaways and are still hiding, three decades on, while Tom Burke co-stars as fairground outcast, Cooper, whose turbulent past will explode into California Avenue.

Kate Robbins plays Priscilla, the formidable force running the caravan site alongside her husband, site manager and jack-of-all-trades, Kevin, played by Paul Kaye.

The series is the latest collaboration between Hugo Blick, Drama Republic, Eight Rooks and the BBC following The English, The Honourable Woman and Black Earth Rising.

California Avenue is created, written, and directed by Hugo Blick. The producer is Colin Wratten (The English, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth), and the executive producers are Hugo Blick for Eight Rooks, Greg Brenman for Drama Republic, Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter, and Lucy Richer for the BBC.

The series is produced by Drama Republic, a Mediawan company, and Eight Rooks. California Avenue will be distributed worldwide by Mediawan Rights with the participation of Entourage Ventures.