The Stage

Spall to play vengeful father in ITV1’s Gunrush

Published Wednesday 24 October 2007 at 11:30 by Matthew Hemley

Timothy Spall is to star in a one-off thriller for ITV1 about a man who takes the law into his own hands when his daughter is shot dead.

Set against the rising wave of gun crime in Britain, ITV said Gunrush “explores what it means to be a man in contemporary society”.

Spall plays Doug Becket, a driving instructor, whose daughter is shot in a London supermarket. When the police come up against a wall of silence in their hunt for the killer, he sets out to track down the murder weapon - the only clue to the murderer’s identity.

Made by ITV Productions, the broadcaster said the drama follows Doug’s journey from ‘amiable father figure to a man seduced by the power of the gun’.

Producer Emma Benson said: “This film takes us to the heart of the crisis about gun crime in Britain. It explores what it means to be a man in contemporary society.”

The drama has been written by Richard Cottan.