Playwright James Graham has teamed up with Michael Sheen for three part BBC drama, The Way. Here’s the trailer.
Michael Sheen has spent a good portion of his career playing real-life figures, perhaps most notably David Frost in Ron Howard’s film version of Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon.
He has also played journalist Robbie Ross in Wilde, writer Jeremy Dyson in The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse, Chris Tarrant in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? scandal drama Quiz and he played a heightened version of himself opposite David Tennant in Staged. He’s about to take on the role of Aneurin “Nye” Bevan in Tim Price’s play Nye at the National Theatre. Likewise, James Graham often writes political plays based around recent events.
The two have now teamed up for BBC drama The Way, which although it takes its inspiration from real events, follows fictional characters.
The synopsis reads as follows:
Ambitious, powerful and surprising, The Way imagines a family caught up in a civil uprising which begins in their small industrial town. Fleeing unrest, the Driscolls are forced to escape the country they’ve always called home and the certainties of their old lives. Will they be overwhelmed by their memories of the past, or will they lay their ghosts to rest and take the risk of an unknown future? With wit and powerful emotion, The Way taps into the chaos of today’s world through the fictional story of an ordinary family caught up in an extraordinary chain of events.
Sheen stars alongside Steffan Rhodri, Mali Harries, Sophie Melville, Callum Scott Howells and Mark Lewis Jones. It also marks Sheen’s directorial debut for television, he created the show with Graham and Adam Curtis, with Graham writing the scripts.
All three episodes of The Way will available to stream on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Monday 19th February, it will be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm.
Watch the trailer below:
