Boat Story

Back to Life creator Daisy Haggard announces next project

Haggard will lead as Anna, a parent pushing herself to the brink to protect her teenage daughter Maya. When the two of them are placed in witness protection, they are forced to leave their London lives behind for the countryside and assume brand new identities.

Haunted by the danger they escaped, moving on isn’t as easy as they’d hoped. It isn’t long before their past comes to find them, in the form of two hitmen.

If you are familiar with Haggard’s previous shows, it will come as no surprise that the dark narrative will be interspersed with her signature dry humour.

Daisy Haggard, Joanna Scanlan and the Williams brothers on Boat Story and making "a show about stories"

A poster for Boat Story sees Daisy Haggard, Craig Fairbrass, Tchéky Karyo, Paterson Joseph and Joanna Scanlan against a seaside backdrop featuring a shipwrecked boat strewn with bags of cocaine

Few TV thrillers have been favourably compared to Tarantino, the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson but Two Brothers Pictures’ ambitious six-part Boat Story, starring Daisy Haggard, Tchéky Karyo and Paterson Joseph, is no run-of-the-mill action series.

This multi-layered show, which started its run on BBC One in late November, begins conventionally enough, with Janet (Haggard) out walking on a wintry Yorkshire beach. However, the down-on-her-luck Janet discovers a washed-up boat containing two dead bodies and cocaine worth millions.

Daisy Haggard on Boat Story, Yorkshire accents and writing her first film

a woman in her 40s faces to the right, standing on a beach with wind in her hair, which is blonde with blue highlights. She wears a blue jumper, hat and a multicoloured scarf. She appears troubled but hardened.

It’s no coincidence, the role of Janet was written specifically for Haggard. Having previously collaborated with Haggard on Back To Life, screenwriters and producers Harry and Jack Williams know that exhibiting a variety of emotions is where she likes to be.

“They kind of thought ‘we'll give Daisy what she's comfortable doing’, which quite often is going - [Haggard contorts her face to show a range of emotions]."

Daisy Haggard and Paterson Joseph embark on new BBC thriller Boat Story

Harry and Jack Williams have written the series and will also produce under their award-winning All3Media company, Two Brothers Pictures (Fleabag).

Daisy Haggard and Paterson Joseph will star as two hard-up strangers, Janet and Samuel, who stumble across a load of cocaine on a shipwreck.

They can't believe their luck, but after agreeing to sell it and split the money, they quickly find themselves entangled with police, masked hitmen and a suited-and-booted gangster known only as 'The Tailor' (Tcheky Karyo).