Broken, BBC One: cast, locations and 4 other things you need to know about Jimmy McGovern’s new series

The new show stars Sean Bean as a Catholic priest and Anna Friel as a single mum
Pillar of the community: Sean Bean plays a priest in new BBC drama Broken
BBC

BBC One is getting a brand new six-part primetime drama focusing on a struggling community in North England.

Jimmy McGovern’s eagerly-awaited new show features an A-list cast including Sean Bean and Anna Friel, who play a priest and a single mum respectively.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new series.

1. Sean Bean stars as a Catholic priest

The Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings star will play Father Michael Kerrigan, a priest who resides over the parish at the heart of the drama. Kerrigan does his best to provide practical as well as spiritual support to his troubled congregation, while getting to grips with his own difficult past.

Despite having played everything from princes to paupers in his 20-year career, Bean said he found tackling on the role of a priest “nerve-wracking” all the same.

"I've been in church and seen priests in front of me, but when you're actually up there, looking the other way, and you've got the vestment on, it's quite a different story, let me tell you," says. "I found it quite nerve-wracking the first time. I wanted to get everything right."

Also starring alongside Bean is Anna Friel (Marcella and Pushing Daisies) who plays Christina – a single mum who works at a betting shop and is determined to fight for children.

Other members of the cast include Paula Malcomson as gambling addict Roz Demichelis, Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty) as Michael Kerrigan’s confidante Father Peter Flaherty and Mark Stanley (Dickensian) as P.C Andrew Powell - an officer torn between his morals and his career.

Difficult times: Anna Friel portrays struggling single mum Christine
BBC

2. It depicts a community in crisis

The drama centres around a suburb in the North of England. With several families in the community on the breadline, the new show will detail the struggles they face to make ends meet.

Father Michael Kerrigan is the thread that ties the different characters together as they rely on him to act as a cross between a counsellor and a confessor.

However, the priest’s opening line: “Please god, not this time”, makes it clear he has problems of his own to contend with.

3. The new series sees Brookside’s Anna Friel return to Liverpool

Broken is set in a fictional town in the North of England but was filmed in Liverpool.

It’s something of a homecoming for Anna Friel, who got her big break playing Beth Jordache in Channel 4’s Scouse soap Brookside, where she and fellow actress Nicola Stephen made history in 1994 with the pre-watershed first lesbian kiss shown on British TV.

Returning to the city after 23-years, the actress described the experience of filming in Liverpool as “amazing”.

There are so many things filming in Liverpool right now, which is amazing. I’d not been there for 23 years and I realised that I didn’t get to see any of it. I’m like - Hope Street rocks! The whole city does; with the music scene and the wonderful people, she said.

4. It's written by Jimmy McGovern, the man behind the Street and Cracker

Born and bred Liverpudlian Jimmy McGovern is the brains behind the series. In a statement he explained that he’d had the idea for Broken for over 30 years:

“The idea dates back to around 1982, when I was working on Brookside and kept pushing for a Catholic priest character.”

Adding: “One of the huge advantages of telling a story about a Catholic priest is Confession, where a person will walk into the room and tell a priest the absolute truth - and the viewer will know it’s the absolute truth, because it’s Confession.”

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The writer and producer has worked with both Sean Bean (on Accused) and Anna Friel on (The Street), as well as contributing to Brookside in the Eighties.

However he just missed out on the chance to work with Friel at that early stage in her career as he departed the show just as the actress joined.

McGovern specialises in hard-hitting programmes, having worked on several crime dramas and a TV film looking back on the Hillsborough disaster, so it’s safe to assume that Broken will be a gripping and at times difficult to watch series.

5. The drama will be sympathetic towards Catholicism

Those hoping for a takedown of the often controversial Catholic religion will have to look elsewhere, as McGovern’s priests Fathers Michael Kerrigan and Pete Flaherty will be moral, though complex characters.

6. Episode one sees a mother witness her mentally ill son being shot by the police

The series won’t be saving all the action for later as episode one kicks off in dramatic style with the shooting of a mentally ill boy that’s witnessed by his devoted mother.

Broken will air on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday May 30.

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