“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to change the face of British television forever… welcome to Echo Beach,’’ Jonathan Pope, Producer.
Jonathan Pope is a man on a mission. That mission is to make the most talked about post-watershed soap opera in Britain. But when your boss hates you, the writers despair of you and the entire cast and crew think you’re a prat, that mission is bound to be a fraught one.
Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper are two interlinking shows from the makers of Life On Mars, Spooks and Hustle. Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon return to their soap roots to play the parts of ex-lovers in Echo Beach. Ben Miller plays the hapless producer desperate to make the soap a success in a behind-the-scenes comedy Moving Wallpaper.
Both 12 part series, from the award-winning Kudos, will run together on ITV1.
In Echo Beach, Hugo Speer (Bleak House, The Full Monty) plays Mark Penwarden, who will stop at nothing to run his wife Susan’s (McCutcheon) ex-lover Daniel Marrack (Donovan) out of Polnarren, with Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street) as long term resident Fin Morgan.
The town’s youngest residents are played by some of Britain’s hottest young talent. These include Ed Speleers (Eragon), Marcus Patrick (Hollyoaks), Laura Greenwood (Prime Suspect 7), Christian Cooke (Where The Heart Is), Jonathan Readwin (Robin Hood), Naomi Ryan (Dream Team), Chandeep Uppal (Anita And Me) and newcomer Hannah Lederer-Alton.
Moving Wallpaper’s Ben Miller (Armstrong And Miller, Primeval, The Worst Week) is joined by Raquel Cassidy (Party Animals, Lead Balloon), James Lance (Teachers, Sensitive Skin), Sarah Hadland (Saxondale, Peep Show), Elizabeth Berrington (The Dinner Party, The Office), Lucy Liemann (The IT Crowd), Dave Lamb (The Smoking Room) and Sinead Keenan (Trouble With Sex).
Susie Amy (Footballer’s Wives, Hotel Babylon) appears in both shows.
Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach has a distinctive set up: eagle-eyed viewers will see jokes, characters and stories crossing from one show to the other.
Both shows have been created by Tony Jordan, lead writer and former story consultant for EastEnders, co-creator of Life On Mars and creator of Hustle.
Echo Beach will follow the lives of Daniel, Susan and Mark whose affairs of the heart are played out amongst teenage angst, family loyalties and tested friendships. Martine will play a woman with a past, while Jason will play the returning ex-lover who is set to rock the foundations of Mark and Susan’s marriage.
On the other side of the camera is Moving Wallpaper, where an army of executives, crew and publicists behind the making of the soap will be pushed to their creative limits by the irrepressible Pope.
Jordan, who has written for EastEnders since 1985, executive produces both shows with Kudos’ Jane Featherstone and Alison Jackson.
Both Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper are Kudos Productions in Association with Red Planet Pictures
Image and text © ITV
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