The thoroughly brilliant and incredibly prolific Jack Thorne (amongst his most recent credits: Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, the script for the movie Wonder, Star Wars: Episode IX, National Treasure) has penned another new drama heading to UK television.
Sarah Lancashire is headlining this one, and it goes by the name of Kiri. It’s a co-production between Channel 4 and Hulu, and the former is premiering the four-part series in January.
The overview of the show, as per Channel 4’s original announcement, is as follows:
At the heart of the drama lies Miriam, played by BAFTA and RTS award-winner Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), an experienced, no-nonsense social worker who loves and believes in her job, but has a maverick and instinctive approach to protecting the children in her care. Miriam arranges for Kiri to have an unsupervised visit with her biological grandparents. But when Kiri disappears during the visit, the fingers of suspicion and blame from the police, the press, and even her colleagues, point firmly at Miriam. As the media spotlight around the story intensifies, Miriam, as well as both sets of families, are forced to ask the toughest questions, not just of themselves, but of each other.
Tobi, Lucian Msamati (Taboo, Luther), who is Kiri’s birth grandfather, finds both his race and dysfunctional relationship with his son, the prime suspect in Kiri’s murder, put under the microscope. Meanwhile Alice, Lia Williams (The Missing, The Crown), Kiri’s fiercely articulate white foster mother, watches as her family starts to crumble under the pressure of very public grief.
Kiri will begin on Wednesday 10th January at 9pm on Channel 4, it’s now been confirmed.