The three-part series includes I Am Maria, I Am Victoria and I Am Danielle, with Savage collaborating with the lead actors to create stories with personal resonance and improvised dialogue.
Manville stars in I Am Maria, which uncovers the cracks that can appear in long-term relationships and the dilemma of being at a crossroads in life and navigating the opportunities and doubt that can bring.
Suranne Jones will be reprising her role of Anne Lister, with Sophie Rundle returning as Ann Walker.
The series will pick up in Yorkshire, 1834, where Anne Lister and Ann Walker are enjoying married life together at Shibden Hall. Determined to combine their estates, Anne Lister’s entrepreneurial zeal when paired with her unconventional love life begins to stoke fear and fury in the locals.
With Halifax on the brink of revolution, Lister’s refusal to fade into the background becomes dangerous and provocative.
When Mike Bartlett sent actress Victoria Hamilton the script for his latest television series, Life, she felt a bit confused at first. “I was reading this wonderful character Belle, and I suddenly thought, I know this woman! I emailed Mike and told him she really reminded me of Anna, my character in Doctor Foster. Mike sent me back a very short email, ‘Yes, it is Anna. Anna Belle.’”
Created and written by Tom Edge, the six-part thriller follows the mysterious disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler and a death on board a Trident nuclear submarine.
The resulting chaos leads to a tense conflict between the police, Navy and British security, as they each try to deal with the situation in their own way.
Each episode will be written and developed by Dominic Savage, in collaboration with the lead actor of the episode, which will have a personal connection to them.
The series will explore mental health, relationships and trust, through a contemporary female lens.
Produced by Me + You Productions, Suranne Jones and Ashley Walters have been confirmed to star in I Am Victoria, with further casting to be announced.
It is doubtful whether Sally Wainwright’s writing has ever been described as inauthentic – her TV drama is populated with real people, speaking natural, colloquial English. “My imagination doesn’t seem to click in if what I’m writing doesn’t feel real, or if it’s phoney, or if something feels a bit cheesy or sentimental,” she told Endemol Shine UK COO Lucinda Hicks, who hosted an RTS webinar with the writer in May.
“I was a bit talkative and mischievous in school,” she says, “and one of my teachers said to my Mum, ‘there’s this theatre workshop where she could go to...expel her extra energy.’”
In Gentleman Jack, Jones brings a bountiful energy to the role of Lister, who, often described as the first modern lesbian, had to constantly draw on hers to overcome the pervasive inequalities of the era.
Written and created by Tom Edge (The Crown), Vigil is produced by World Productions, the producers behind Line Of Duty and Bodyguard.
Save Me Too follows the return of estranged father Nelly (Lennie James), seventeen months after his unsuccessful search for his missing daughter Jody.
Challenged to re-evaluate his life decisions, Nelly’s search forced him to take dangerous risks that dragged him into a dark underworld that trafficks kidnapped youngsters including Jody.
Gentleman Jack wowed critics and audiences alike when it aired on BBC One earlier this year. This was a Sunday-night period drama with a difference – based on the diaries of early 19th-century landowner, industrialist and traveller Anne Lister, it revealed a woman determined to explore her lesbian sexuality.
