Channel 4 commissions new drama Summerwater based on the best-selling novel from Sarah Moss

Based on the Sunday Times Top Ten book by novelist Sarah Moss, Channel 4 has commissioned Summerwater, a new six-part drama series from Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund and Glasgow based production company Freedom Scripted, which has been adapted by screenwriter John Donnelly (The Assessment, Utopia, The Pass) and will be directed by Robert McKillop (The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies, Then You Run, Guilt).

Set against the backdrop of a remote loch-side Scottish holiday cabin park and set over the course of one single rainy summer’s day, Summerwater looks at the simmering tensions between holidaymakers that eventually erupt into a devastating climax. Weaving together the lives of several families as they navigate unspoken conflicts, private dilemmas, and fleeting moments of beauty from their disparate cabins, the series will take an unflinching but empathetic look at human nature across generations. Each episode will spotlight one or two of the ensemble of characters, spanning from young children to young lovers to reminiscing pensioners, to build a subversive, often witty, and always riveting portrait of the nation on edge that is modern Britain.

A thrilling and compulsive drama about nature, family, sex, class, tolerance and the fruitless pursuit of holiday escapism, Summerwater examines the strength of community in divided times.