Blame the parents
Adorable Media’s Richelle Wilder breaks down The Trial, 5’s thought-provoking single drama set in a world where parents are directly legally accountable for their children’s actions, and reveals how it was produced in just four days.
UK broadcaster 5’s The Trial is a thought-provoking drama set in a near-future, dystopian world where parents can face severe legal consequences for the actions of their offspring.
Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) and Ben Miles (The Crown) star as Dione and David Sinclair, whose lives are transformed when their daughter Teah (India Fowler) commits a serious crime.
Dione and David then face a battle against a judicial system that sees them as perpetrators, rather than victims, as they are interrogated about their parenting style, lifestyle and past decisions – and a possible life sentence behind bars.
The single drama, which is produced by Adorable Media for 5, debuts tomorrow. Here, Adorable producer Richelle Wilder tells DQ more about the show, its dystopian setting and how the project went from commission to transmission in just a few months.
What is The Trial?
A newly commissioned single drama written by Mark Burt, adapted from his original play Milligan’s Law. Parents David (Ben Miles) and Dione (Claire Skinner) are thrust into a nightmarish legal battle when their teenage daughter, Teah (India Fowler), commits a serious crime. Under a radical new UK law, parents are no longer just bystanders in their children’s actions. They are directly accountable. David and Dione Sinclair face relentless interrogation as every aspect of their parenting style is scrutinised, from their first meeting and sexual history to their lifestyle and child-rearing choices. If found guilty, they face life behind bars.
The Trial has been commissioned as part of a limited ‘Law & Order in the UK’ season. It is also the first single drama forming part of 5’s larger rebrand launched in March.
The dystopian setting
The Trial is set 10 years in the future, which allows us to construct the storytelling from recognisable roots in contemporary Britain, with creative licence to explore ideas and themes in active discussion right now. In December 2024, former UK prime minister Tony Blair said parents should be made criminally responsible for their children’s crimes. In the US, parents already serve custodial sentences. In the Trial, it is Britain 2035. The state will now decide if you are a good parent or you are a criminal through its newly formed Office of Judicial Inquisition.
An inquisition has no jury. No legal representation is afforded to the defendants. A judicial inquisitor is prosecutor and judge, with the singular authority to condemn and convict. Inquisitor Sarah Willis (Saoirse Monica Jackson) is the ultimate progressive zealot; young, dogmatic and unflinching. The setting has chilling similarities to totalitarian societies of the past but reimagined as a future dystopian Britain.
Themes of relationships, ego, power and betrayal
The Trial takes a provocative look at modern relationships: male-female roles, marriage, partnerships, guilt, responsibilities and betrayal. At its emotional core, this drama explores the disintegration of a marriage, with the audience watching David and Dione’s secrets and lies exposed to one another over 45 minutes as the inquisitor delves into every element of their history together. The drama begins with the Sinclairs as a united couple, but Sarah exposes uncomfortable choices they have made as lovers, partners and parents in a relentless cat-and-mouse game.
Getting the perfect cast for The Trial was crucial. The three main characters are on screen for almost the entire drama, needing to deliver the complexities of characterisation and a wide range of emotional surprise and authenticity in real time. Based on the quality of the script, we were able to attract the talents of Ben Miles, Claire Skinner and Saoirse Monica Jackson, who delivered extraordinary performances.
The decision to commission a single drama
Paul Testar, our commissioning executive at 5, believed The Trial would make a highly original and thought-provoking single drama to complement the channel’s Law & Order season. The channel required a 12-week turnaround from commission to tape delivery – a production challenge that Adorable Media relished. In six weeks, we adapted the 80-page play into a commercial hour drama, crewed up with highly experienced creatives, found an excellent location and attracted our first-class cast, all while accommodating the two-week Christmas shutdown.
We got excellent support from 5’s editorial, production, business affairs and legal teams. This ensured we finalised all legal and business elements prior to production. We had the excellent writing skills of Mark Burt, delivering five drafts in three weeks. We had a determined director in Michael Samuels (Any Human Heart, Coma) who developed a clear creative vision for the drama, and a top-class production team headed by line producer Hannah Clark, who ensured pre-production ran smoothly, allowing us to hit the ground running in production.
Producing a 45-minute drama in four days
The Trial was shot in four days, with two cameras, in one location. We needed to be no further than 30 miles from our production base, and we found a disused magistrates’ court in Watford, which allowed for the creation of four distinct sets, with minimal moving involved. The director and production designer Ben Smith wanted to create the feel of state overreach, a visual language of absolute power, with dark woods and stylish discomfort, mixed with futuristic digital elements and modern sparseness. The location’s historical architecture provided the ready-made backdrop. The lighting design and camera work of Sergio Delgardo created a strong sense of the outside light closing in on the parents to complement the expectations of the script and the design visuals.
With an experienced team behind the camera across all departments, we were able to move at lightning speed, supported in post by a quick-turnaround edit by Isobel Stephenson and sound mix by Nigel Heath, with online editing by Goldcrest completed within just six weeks.
A small indie with big ambitions
Being small, without a decision-making hierarchy or departmental layers, Adorable can be very nimble and reactive. Given The Trial’s commission was dependent on hitting tight deadlines to a lean budget and schedule, we could swing into action instantly. As a small indie without a parent company, we were delighted to step up to the challenge to produce a high-quality, original drama within 12 weeks. Fellow producer Isibeal Ballance and I have combined skillsets that cover every aspect of the production process – from script development and legal affairs to production management – and have recent experience in producing programmes with similar challenges. We already know where the pitfalls might occur and how to circumnavigate them, and the schedule had no extra time for error, delays or overspend. It is ambitious to produce high-quality drama in the UK within the timeframe needed, but The Trial shows its achievable if the necessary production elements are in place.
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