EXCLUSIVE: The timing couldn’t be higher. Only a week after Rupert Murdoch‘s shock apology and settlement with Prince Harry, ITV has unveiled a telephone hacking drama collection from Jack Thorne starring David Tennant as investigative journalist Nick Davies.
ITV and Australian streamer Stan have spent the previous yr quietly filming, enhancing and laying the groundwork for The Hack, which comes from the storied inventive trio of multi-BAFTA Award winner Thorne, director Lewis Arnold (Sherwood) and producer Patrick Spence (Mr Bates vs the Submit Workplace).
Set between 2002 and 2012, The Hack interweaves two actual life tales, the work of Davies, who uncovered proof of telephone hacking at Murdoch’s now-defunct Information of the World, and the story of the investigation into the unsolved homicide of personal investigator Daniel Morgan, led by former Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Prepare dinner. Its working titles by means of the previous yr have included Damaged Information and Mandrake.
Tennant, who has been profitable plaudits for his efficiency in Disney+’s Rivals, is taking part in Davies, Robert Carlyle is Prepare dinner and Toby Jones has secured the function of Alan Rusbridger, the ex-Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, which lined the story in depth. Rose Leslie, Dougray Scott, Eve Myles, Adrian Lester, Katherine Kelly, Kevin Doyle, Neil Maskell, Lara Pulver, Lee Ingleby, Pip Torrens, Lisa McGrillis, Sean Pertwee, Robert Bathurst, Richard Pepple, Nadia Albina, Phil Davis, Ace Bhatti, Charlie Brooks and Steve Pemberton additionally star.
The telephone hacking scandal led to the closure of the Information of the World and imprisonment of its ex-editor Andy Coulson. Davies wrote an award-winning e-book about it, Hack Assault: How the Fact Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch. The headline-grabbing story reared its head once more final week after Murdoch’s Information Group Newspapers (NGN) apologized to Prince Harry, settled with him and for the primary time admitted legal exercise at The Solar. Harry and a bunch together with Hugh Grant at the moment are pushing for police to research NGN over perjury and broader cover-ups.
David Tennant as Nick Davies and Toby Jones as Alan Rusbridger in ‘The Hack’. Picture: ITV/Stan
“Unusual and misleading piece of historical past”
Thorne, who’s in the course of a plethora of tasks together with an A24 collection about Liverpool soccer membership, described the telephone hacking scandal as a “unusual and misleading piece of our latest historical past.” “I assumed, as somebody who’s involved in politics, I understood every thing that occurred,” he added. “I didn’t.”
ITV drama head Polly Hill, who commissioned the collection, paid homage to “an excellent crew and the right individuals to deliver this story to display screen,” whereas Spence added: “It’s clear that a number of questions stay unanswered. This drama is our contribution to that dialog.”
The crew isn’t the primary to sort out telephone hacking. Thank You & Goodbye, which examined the newsroom of the Information of the World and telephone hacking, was in growth with the BBC two and a half years in the past however seems to have stalled.
ITV Studios is producing with Nameless, United Brokers and Casarotto Ramsay-backed AC Chapter One, with the pair re-teaming following the smash hit success of Mr Bates vs the Submit Workplace, the ITV drama that broke viewing information and generated headlines for weeks. Thorne’s One Shoe Movies can also be a co-producer. Between them, Thorne, Arnold and Spence have gained seven BAFTAs.
Annalisa Dinnella (Intercourse Training, Ralph & Katie) has written one of many episodes and is co-writing two of the episodes with Thorne. ITV Studios is promoting internationally and is co-financing.