Annabel Scholey & Colin Morgan to Lead BBC Thriller 'Dead & Buried'
Annabel Scholey in "The Sixth Commandment" // Colin Morgan in "We Hunt Together"
(Photo: BritBox/Showtime)
The BBC has tapped Annabel Scholey (The Sixth Commandment) and Colin Morgan (The Killing Kind) to star in the upcoming psychological thriller Dead and Buried, which wrestles with complex questions of revenge, trauma, guilt, and grief.
Scholey stars as Cathy, whose life begins to spiral in the wake of a random encounter with the man who murdered her brother 20 years prior. Morgan plays Michael, who has seemingly turned his life around post-conviction, earning an early release and building a new life and career. Still struggling under the long shadow of her own grief, Cathy grows increasingly obsessed with Michael and the happiness he appears to have found, ultimately launching a campaign of harassment designed to make him pay.
“Cathy is a wonderfully complex character and I'm excited to be bringing her to life and to taking her to dark places with this brilliant team," Scholey said in a statement.
Dead and Buried is written by Colin Bateman (Doc Martin), and is an adaptation of his previous one-woman play called Bag for Life.
"Very excited that Dead and Buried is coming to television," Bateman said. "It has been a fascinating journey from the original short story, to the one-woman stage show, and now expanded into an exciting four-part drama. Although it has changed greatly, the actual conundrum at the heart of the story is universal and timeless - what do you do if you meet someone who has prospered after murdering one of your loved ones? Do you say something? Do you do something? How would you react?”
Here's the series' description.
Outside the supermarket with her young son, Cathy (Annabel Scholey) encounters Michael (Colin Morgan) - the man convicted of the brutal murder of her brother, 20 years earlier. Ignoring the advice of her best friend, Cathy takes to social media, uncovering the successful career and family life Michael has forged for himself since early release from prison, while she grieved for her brother.
Re-traumatised by her past, Cathy instigates a clandestine relationship with the man she despises, embarking on a campaign of harassment and deceit. As Cathy’s obsession grows, dark fantasies of revenge and reality blur as she sets out on a campaign of psychological warfare to destroy Michael’s life.
Other announced members of the series' cast include Kerri Quinn (Hope Street), Waj Ali (Hijack), Owen Roe (Vikings), and Niamh Walsh (The Sandman).
"I'm delighted to be embarking on Colin Bateman's dark, funny, and compulsive new drama Dead And Buried," Morgan said in a statement. "There's a brilliant team working on this and it already feels incredibly exciting, I can't wait for it to hit the screens and for it to pull viewers along its twisted path."
Dead and Buried is produced by Three River Fiction (Trackers) and Vico Films (The Young Offenders), in association with All3Media International. The drama is written by Bateman and directed by Laura Way (Maxine). It was jointly commissioned by Eddie Doyle, Head of Commissioning for BBC Northern Ireland, and Sinead Stimpfig, Lead Commissioner for Virgin Media Television.
Set on the border, the series will film in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland over the coming months.
