BBC walks down Hugo Blick’s California Avenue with Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter and Erin Doherty

FIRST LOOK: Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter, Erin Doherty and Tom Burke appear in the first images from California Avenue, a new BBC drama from writer and director Hugo Blick set to air later this year.

Described as a story of humour and love, the six-part series takes place in the 1970s in a secluded canal-side caravan park deep in the luscious English countryside. But the peace is irrevocably disrupted by the arrival of Lela (Doherty) and her 11-year-old child Bee (Cammie Liebreich), both on the run, looking for refuge in this hidden world. It is here that a fractured family will come together, ghosts of the past will firmly be put to rest and an unexpected love is forged.

Nighy and Bonham Carter star as Jerry and Eddie, Lela’s parents, ballroom champions of the 1930s who became wartime runaways and are still hiding, three decades on, while Burke co-stars as fairground outcast, Cooper, whose turbulent past will explode into California Avenue.

Kate Robbins plays Priscilla, the formidable force running the caravan site alongside her husband, site manager and jack-of-all-trades, Kevin, played by Paul Kaye.

Produced by Drama Republic (One Day, Doctor Foster), the series is the latest collaboration between Blick, Drama Republic, Eight Rooks and the BBC following The English, The Honourable Woman and Black Earth Rising.

California Avenue is created, written and directed by Blick. The producer is Colin Wratten (The English, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth) and the executive producers are Blick for Eight Rooks, Greg Brenman for Drama Republic, Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter and Lucy Richer for the BBC.

Coming soon to BBC iPlayer and BBC One, the show will be distributed worldwide by Mediawan Rights with the participation of Entourage Ventures.

Read more about the series here.

tagged in: BBC iPlayer, BBC One, Bill Nighy, California Avenue, Drama Republic, Erin Doherty, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugo Blick, Mediawan Rights, Tom Burke