Diamond Kahn & Woods Literary Agency

Paramount+ greenlights 6-part series adaptation of AFTER DARK by Jayne Cowie

Starring Sarah ParishDoctor Who’s Mandip Gill, Mitchell Robertson and singer Alexandra BurkeCurfew is set in a society where all men live under ‘The Women’s Safety Act’, meaning they are bound by a strict curfew from 7PM to 7AM every night, with their movements tracked by an ankle tag 24 hours a day. When a woman’s body is discovered, brutally murdered during curfew hours and left on the steps of the Women’s Safety Centre, veteran Police officer Pamela Green believes that a man is responsible. But in a world where men are bound by the curfew system, her theory is rejected.

Parish (Stay Close) plays lead investigator Pamela, whilst Robertson (Mayflies) is rookie cop Eddie, who is shadowing Pamela during the investigation. Gill joins the cast as Sarah, an employee at the local tagging centre at the heart of Pamela and Eddie’s investigation. Burke (Sister Act) is Helen, a well intentioned local school teacher and advocator for the curfew.

Producer Nathalie Peter-Contesse called Curfew a “provocative and thrilling show that aims to contribute to the important conversation around violence against women.”

The series is being produced by Federation-owned Vertigo Films in the UK in association with Evolutionary Films, with Federation Studios distributing.

Joasia Goldyn (Britannia) is director on Curfew, whilst Lydia Yeoman (The Haze) is lead writer. Joining Yeoman in the writing team is Jess Green (EastEnders), who will write episode three and Sumerah Srivastav (Manifest), who will write episode five. Allan Niblo, Jane Moore and Nathalie Peter-Contesse are EPs on the series for Vertigo Films, and John Adams (Damaged) joins the team as producer.

Based on the book After Dark by Jayne Cowie (published by PRH Cornerstone in the UK and under the title Curfew by PRH Berkeley in the US, 2022); TV adaptation rights were optioned to Vertigo Films by Andrew Mills at Revolution Talent on behalf of Ella Kahn at DKW Literary Agency. With over 15k copies sold in the UK & US, translation rights have sold in 6 territories (US, Germany, Italy, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey) to date.

The news has been reported by Deadline, the Radio Times, Drama Quarterly, Geek Town, I Talk Telly and BookBrunch.