Sheridan Smith To Headline ITV Holiday Nightmare Series ‘No Return’ From ‘The Stranger’ Writer Danny Brocklehurst
EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA-winning actress Sheridan Smith has been cast in her latest ITV series — an “event drama” from Red Production Company and writer Danny Brocklehurst in which a dream family holiday turns into a nightmare.
Smith will play Kathy in No Return, a mother who leads her family on a vacation to Turkey, where an idyllic break quickly unravels when their 16-year-old son is arrested after attending a local beach party.
Kathy and her husband Martin are left to navigate an expensive and alien legal system, looming media coverage, and the disdain of fellow holidaymakers in a four-part series that deals with issues including teenage consent.
Brocklehurst, who wrote Netflix hit The Stranger (another Red production) and Sky’s Brassic, described No Return as a “passion project” about a family “caught in a modern nightmare.” Smith added that it was a “thrilling, complex” story.
“This is a brilliant script about a family who are out of their depth, in a legal system they don’t understand, trying to save their son,” said ITV drama head Polly Hill. “Danny finds such emotional truth in the characters and their nightmare holiday, that it’s utterly compelling from start to finish.”
No Return will go into production over the summer next year and will be executive produced by Red founder Nicola Shindler, who is leaving the production outfit to set up a label at ITV Studios in 2021. Former Fremantle executive Sarah Doole has been installed as the new Red CEO. Red’s parent company Studiocanal will distribute No Return.
Shindler is currently overseeing filming on Finding Alice for ITV, a family bereavement series starring Keeley Hawes, Joanna Lumley, and Nigel Havers.
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