The project comes to Apple following Herron's collaboration on Slow Horses, the wildly popular spy drama based on his Slough House novels. The series, starring Gary Oldman, has been on air for three seasons and has won multiple BAFTA nominations. The series has been renewed for season five.
Morwenna Banks, a writer on that series, will serve as head writer and executive producer of Down Cemetery Road.
The series centers on Sarah Tucker (Wilson, pictured right), who becomes obsessed with finding a girl next door who disappeared after an explosion in a house in a quiet suburb of Oxford. After enlisting the help of private detective Zoë Boehm (Thompson, pictured left) in her search, the pair find themselves embroiled in a complex conspiracy that reveals that people long thought dead are still among the living, while the living are quickly catching up. the dead join.
In addition to Banks, 60Forty Films' Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Tom Nash, as well as Thompson and Herron, are execs on the project. Natalie Bailey is the series' 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 Jay Hunt, Apple TV+’s Creative Director, Europe. “Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson will make it an unmissable companion piece for Slow Horses on our service.”
Recently, Emma Thompson closed a deal to reprise her role as Dr. Rawling in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. In recent years, Thompson has appeared in series such as BBC/HBO's Years and Years and Why Didn't They Ask Evans? from Britbox.
Wilson is known for series such as Luther (BBC), His Dark Materials (BBC/HBO) and The Affair (Showtime). She recently appeared in the six-part miniseries The Woman in the Wall (BBC) and Wilson will soon be seen in Prime Video's limited series A Very Royal Scandal, which focuses on Prince Andrew's infamous interview with Newsnight's Emily Maitlis.
Banks previously produced and wrote Catherine Hardwicke's dramedy Miss You Already, starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette. In that capacity she also worked on the Sky Original Funny Woman and wrote Slow Horses.
