From Broadchurch star Andy Buchan

ITV has commissioned a darkly comic horror series from Broadchurch star Andy Buchan.

Passenger is a six-part series set in the small Northern village of Chadder Vale, which begins experiencing a series of strange and unnatural crimes.

Detective Riya Ajunwa investigates the peculiar happenings, which starts with the mysterious disappearance of  Katie Wells, who suddenly reappears the next day,

Creator Andy Buchan, pictured as  Mark Latimer in Broadchurch, said: ‘I’ve always loved shows where the known collides with the unknown … where you see communities faced with something horrifying and inexplicable, where, as a viewer, you’ve nothing in your kit-bag to explain it.

‘When I started writing the scripts, I wanted to create something epic and unknown but also bed it somewhere close to home. Having grown up in Lancashire it felt like the perfect place for it. We’ll definitely see the residents of Chadder Vale pushed to their limits.’

The show is being made by Sister, the production company that also adapted Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt for the BBC, and will air on ITV’s new free streaming service ITVX ‘many months’ before it lands on terrestrial TV.

Executive producers Jane Featherstone and Lucy Dyke said in a statement:  ‘Andy has an incredible ear for character; brilliantly blending the comedy and idiosyncrasies of everyday life with such a twisted, horrifying vision of such gleeful inventiveness we were blown away. The fact this is his first screenplay makes it even more remarkable.’

Passenger  was commissioned by ITV’s head of drama, Polly Hill,  who addedid: ‘Andrew Buchan’s brilliant scripts take us into a tight-knit Northern community where the Detective Sergeant Riya Ajunwa, an outsider to the town, has to investigate the strange happenings that are genuinely monstrous.’

The show will be filmed later this year in Lancashire.  No cast has yet been announced.

Published: 17 Mar 2022