BBC Three orders a comedy-horror set on a cruise ship

BBC Three has commissioned a new comedy-horror series from up-and-coming writer Ryan J Brown.

Wrecked is set on a luxury cruise ship where glamorous entertainers make guests’ dreams come true, but which is haunted by a vague, unsettling sense of menace, made tangible when its young workers turn up dead.

The series follows a 19-year-old new recruit, Jamie, as he joins the crew in search of his sister who worked on a previous cruise but never made it home.

According to makers Euston Films, ‘Jamie is initiated into cruise life and gets a crash course on the teen tribes within the staff: the theatre kids, the drop-outs, the low-paid workers from developing nations. For this overworked and underpaid crew, life below deck is an odyssey of partying and excess… and they remain oblivious to the bloodthirsty murders taking place on board. Jamie is forced to turn detective and uncover the sinister truth that runs as wide and deep as the ocean he’s trapped on.’

The six-part series is the first commission for Brown, who previously co-wrote a couple of episodes of Diary of a Badman star Humza Arshad’s 2017 BBC three comedy Coconut.

He said: ‘In Wrecked, the kills are brutal, the laughs are loud, and the heartfelt moments land with real candour. I wanted to create a piece of genre entertainment that had the savvy teen sharpness of Scream, the unsettling atmosphere of The Shining and the strange upstairs, downstairs mythology of Cabin in the Woods’.

‘At its core, Wrecked is a tense coming-of-age story about a lost, gay kid from Sheffield propelled into uncharted waters of escalating paranoia and self-discovery.’

Brown, who has several other projects in development with broadcasters, was previously identified as ‘one to watch’ by Bafta,  the Royal Television Society, Gay Times and Idris Elba

Executive producer Noemi Spanos said: ‘We’re thrilled to introduce Ryan’s wildly distinctive voice to the BBC Three audience.

‘His blend of comedy, horror and coming of age storytelling has had us laughing, crying and terrified in equal measures throughout the development process and we can’t wait to realise Ryan’s unique vision and tone on screen.’

The series will be filmed in Northern Ireland later in the year and is set for release in 2022. Casting has yet to be announced.

Published: 30 Mar 2021