C4 rural drama to halt ‘idyllic’ trend

Published Wednesday 27 September 2006 at 13:15 by Liz Thomas

Exclusive: Channel 4 is developing a drama set in the Peak District, depicting the bleaker side of rural life today and tackling drug abuse, underage sex and unemployment.

Entitled Snake Pass, plans for the series are still being finalised, but it is understood the story will follow life of people living around the infamously isolated winding road linking Manchester and Sheffield.

A source told The Stage: “A lot of television has a bias towards people living in cities, be it crime or hospital dramas, and any programmes that do look further out paint life in the country as this charming, idyllic 1950s existence, which in many cases, is far from the truth. Actually there are often high rates of drug dependency, teenage pregnancy and unemployment.”

The show comes after the huge success of Paul Abbott’s loosely autobiographical black comedy drama Shameless, which follows the dysfunctional Gallagher family living on a Manchester sink estate and is now on to its fourth run. Snake Pass is being made by the same production house behind the hit Channel 4 series.

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