BBC opens The Cage

FIRST LOOK: Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha are pictured in The Cage, an upcoming BBC crime drama set in a Liverpool casino and written by The Responder’s Tony Schumacher.

When Leanne (Smith) and Matty (Socha) discover they are both robbing from the safe at the casino they work in, their lives are set on a collision course; with each other, the local gangster they’re stealing from, and the police.

Joining Smith and Sochha on screen are Barry Sloane as Gary, Geraldine James as Nancy, Anton Bibby as Thomas, Freya Jones as Emily, Sophie Mensah as Fen, Abby Mavers as Kelly, Shaun Mason as Alan, Louis Emerick as Paul, Ian Puleston Davies as Vincent, Julia Papp as Irina, Katy Carmichael as DCI Hannigan, Dave Hart as Danny, Eileen O’Brien as Nanna, Eithne Browne as Annie, Mona Goodwin as Trace, and more.

The five-part characterful thriller is directed by Al Mackay (Kidnapped, Without Sin) and shot in and around Liverpool and Merseyside. It is produced by Element Pictures (Normal People) for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Creator and writer Schumacher is an executive producer alongside Sheridan Smith; Hilary Martin for Fremantle; Lucy Richer for the BBC; and Christopher Aird, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe from Element Pictures. Clare Shepherd is the producer.

Fremantle is handling international sales.

tagged in: BBC iPlayer, BBC One, Element Pictures, Fremantle, Michael Socha, Sheridan Smith, The Cage, Tony Schumacher