The Accident | C4 mini-series

Four-part mini series The Accident gets underway tonight on Channel 4, written by Jack Thorne and featuring Sarah Lancashire, Mark Lewis Jones, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Adrian Scarborough among others.

The series explores a fictional Welsh community’s fight for justice after an explosion on a construction site, which kills several local children.

The series is set in the fictional town of Glyngolau, filmed in a number of locations in South Wales. A large building project called ‘The Light’, offering 1000 local jobs, is being built in the town by Kallbridge Developments. A group of local teenagers manage to climb into the site but, while they are drawing graffiti inside the building, an explosion takes place. The building collapses before rescuers can reach the children and all except one of the ten teenagers, 15-year-old Leona, is killed by the collapse. The site security manager also dies.

Leona’s mother, Polly (Sarah Lancashire), leads a campaign to find out who was responsible for the incident. Leona’s father Iwan (Mark Lewis Jones) is a leading local politician who secured the project for the town. Polly and Iwan have a tempestuous relationship, struggling with their daughter’s injuries and the jealousy of the other parents. Polly also suspects Iwan may know more than he’s letting on.

A campaigning lawyer (Adrian Scarborough) takes an interest in the legal case and offers his services. The second episode ends with him listing all the major disasters, which have ended with no-one at fault going to jail.

Harriet (Sidse Babett Knudsen), the executive of the development company behind ‘The Light’, is under scrutiny from the legal case. She tries to show sympathy without admitting any culpability, supported by her assistant and lover, Tim (Nabhaan Rizwan). Tim leaks to the newspapers an allegation that the late site foreman was negligent.

The Accident is produced by The Forge Entertainment for Channel 4.

Sync Music’s Christian Siddell attached as Music Supervisor.