The Stage

Author Burgess makes TV debut with teen thriller

Published Thursday 16 July 2009 at 13:56 by Matthew Hemley

Children’s author Melvin Burgess is to make his television debut, with a thriller aimed at teenagers called The Well.

It is being made by Conker Media, part of Lime Pictures, and will air in the autumn as part of the BBC’s teenage strand, Switch, on BBC2.

The show will also have an online presence, allowing viewers to access content revealing the back story to the series, by taking part in a number of tasks and challenges.

The Well’s cast includes Karen Gillan, who was recently announced as Doctor Who’s new assistant.

Geoffrey Goodwin, head of BBC Switch, said: “It’s fantastic to have a writer of Melvin’s calibre involved in this project. The Well is a great example of Switch’s strategy to produce a broad range of high quality and exciting content for British teens, combining both established and new talent with distinctive interactive ideas.”

Lee Hardman, head of Conker Media, said the series “bridges the gap between traditional TV and digital media by showing the creative potential of multi-layered drama in terms of storytelling”.

“This approach deepens the audience’s engagement with the story and enables them to get one step ahead of the TV drama – something that works particularly well with the Switch audience,” he added.

Meanwhile, Fresh, a drama series that was debuted online by the BBC last year, has been commissioned for a seven-part run on BBC2 and BBC3 in September.

Fresh is the first UK comedy series to make the transition from online to a BBC TV channel.

It is being made by Greenroom Entertainment and was commissioned by Goodwin and BBC3 controller Danny Cohen.

Goodwin said: “Moving a show from online to TV is a great creative process which allows us to really develop the show and nurture the talent while building up a dedicated following online so that the show has a lot of thrust and energy behind it when it hits TV.”