THE GATHERING: CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR NEW CHANNEL 4 DRAMA

Produced by award-winning World Productions (Line of Duty, Save Me, Vigil) filming has commenced for The Gathering, a major new six-part drama, written by acclaimed writer and director Helen Walsh in her first original script for television.

Newcomer Eva Morgan and Sadie Soverall (Little Bone Lodge) will lead the cast as Kelly and Jessica respectively, alongside Vinette Robinson (Boiling Point, The Lazarus Project) as Jessica’s aggressively pushy mother Natalie.

Warren Brown (Ten Pound Poms, The Responder) is cast as Kelly’s hard working single parent Paul, and Richard Coyle (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Then You Run, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as successful solicitor Jules.

The Gathering will centre around a violent attack on a teenage girl during a rave on a tidal islet. Set on Merseyside, the drama focuses on a group of teens from disparate backgrounds, each of whom could have committed the crime, along with their parents - who give equal cause for suspicion.

Eva Morgan will play Kelly, the victim of the attack, who straddles the very different worlds of two groups of teens. Kelly is an accomplished gymnast, on the pathway to world-class competitions, but at odds with her teammates and their ultra-competitive parents.

By contrast, Kelly also rolls with a group of urban free-runners, whose reckless lifestyle and exuberant free-spirit is in conflict with the discipline and restrictions Kelly experiences in the tightly controlled world of competitive sport. This multi-layered story is a drama for our times.

The cast will also include Sonny Walker (The Responder) as Adam, and newcomers Luca Kamleh- Chapman as Bazi and Hebron Tedros as Dessie.

The Gathering interrogates the ways in which today’s parents impose their agendas and issues upon their teenagers. It explores the balance between allowing teens their freedom, while ensuring their safety in a world where social media can create fame and notoriety overnight – and cancel it, and our children, at the flick of a thumb. And asks whether it’s responsible to be overly invested in our kids, or irresponsible not to know what they’re up to?

Helen Walsh, writer, said, “I’m thrilled to have a brilliant cast on board led by such established talent. Our young actors, many of whom are newcomers, have wowed us with their raw and heartfelt depictions of teenagers having to navigate adult problems in morally ambiguous worlds."

The series was commissioned for Channel 4 by Caroline Hollick, Head of Drama, and Gwawr Lloyd, Commissioning Editor, Drama.