Fleabag Director Lands Surveillance Thriller at ITV

ITV has commissioned the five-part thriller Viewpoint, which comes from Emmy- and Edgar Award-winning screenwriter Ed Whitmore and Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer.

Viewpoint follows a police surveillance investigation into a tight-knit Manchester community and explores whether it is ever possible to observe the lives of others with true objectivity and zero effect. Tiger Aspect Productions, part of Endemol Shine UK, is producing.

Polly Hill, ITV’s head of drama, said: “It’s hard to find a crime series that feels new and fresh, which is why I am delighted to commission Viewpoint. Martin, the police surveillance officer watching a community to discover why a local teacher has gone missing, is in Zoe’s flat who secretly watches her neighbors because she’s lonely. The lines between the two and who can and can’t spy on us is beautifully blurred. It creates a crime series that has a touch of Rear Window.”

Tiger Aspect’s Lucy Bedford, executive producer, added: “As soon as Harry told me about the true story that inspired Viewpoint, I was instantly hooked and it has been a real joy to see such a rich and fruitful collaboration spring up between him and the very talented Ed Whitmore. Part character-driven drama and part Hitchcockian thriller, Ed’s scripts brilliantly interweave the personal and investigative into a gripping, taut, emotional story which surprises at every turn.”

Whitmore commented: “I’ve always been eager to find a story that explored voyeurism in a fresh and innovative way, not least because it makes such compulsive and cinematic subject matter. As soon as I read Harry Bradbeer’s pitch which put a young surveillance officer in the flat of a single mother, I could see all the tensions and conflicts arising from this clash of the personal and the professional, the juxtaposition of a crime story and the intimate environment of a domestic residence. And I saw a chance for a vividly different hybrid of police procedural and up-close-and-personal portrait of a community, with the crime story unfolding in both arenas simultaneously. I’m thrilled to be working with director Ashley Way and Executive Producer Lucy Bedford and her team at Tiger Aspect, and I’m greatly looking forward to filming in Manchester and seeing the scripts come to life.”

Endemol Shine International will be responsible for the international distribution of the series.