Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) and Ruth Wilson (Luther) will executive produce and star in Down Cemetery Road, a thriller series for Apple TV+, based on the book from Gold Daggar Award-winning author Mick Herron.
The project comes to Apple following the streamer’s work with Herron on Slow Horses, its hugely popular espionage drama based on his Slough House novels. Thus far airing three seasons, the show starring Gary Oldman has garnered multiple BAFTA nominations and has been renewed through Season 5.
A writer on that series, Morwenna Banks will serve as lead writer and exec producer of Down Cemetery Road. The show centers on Sarah Tucker (Wilson), who becomes obsessed with finding a neighbor girl who’s disappeared in the aftermath of a house’s explosion in a quiet Oxford suburb. After enlisting the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm (Thompson) in her quest, the pair find themselves in a complex conspiracy that reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.
In addition to Banks, exec producers on the project include Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Tom Nash of 60Forty Films, as well as Thompson and Herron. Natalie Bailey (Audrey, Bay of Fires) will serve as the show’s lead director.
“‘Down Cemetery Road’ has all the hallmarks of Mick Herron’s funny and acerbic writing, and I’m delighted we will be bringing it to life for Apple TV+ with such a stellar cast,” said Apple TV+’s Creative Director, Europe, Jay Hunt. “Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson will make it an unmissable companion piece for ‘Slow Horses’ on our service.”
Most recently closing a deal to reprise her role as OB/GYN Dr. Rawling in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Thompson’s over the last few years been seen in films including Matilda: The Musical, Searchlight/Hulu crowd pleaser Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Cruella.
Known for starring on series like Luther, His Dark Materials and The Affair, Wilson will next be seen in Amazon’s limited series A Very Royal Scandal, centered on Prince Andrew’s infamous interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, among other projects.
Previously, Banks has exec produced and written Catherine Hardwicke’s dramedy Miss You Already, starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, also serving in those capacities on the Sky Original Funny Woman, and writing on Slow Horses.
While both Thompson and Wilson are repped by Hamilton Hodell and CAA, Wilson’s team also includes Untitled Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Banks is repped by The Agency in the UK.
