Audrey Fleurot, Emmett J Scanlan & Marc Warren join Michael C. Hall and Amanda Abbington in Harlan Coben's 'SAFE' written by Danny Brocklehurst

RED Production Company called "action" as filming commenced in Manchester on original new television drama, SAFE. The 8 x 60' series has been ordered by CANAL+ Group and Netflix and will run on free-to-air channel C8 (CANAL+ Group) in France and Netflix globally outside of France in 2018. The eight-part series is created by bestselling writer Harlan Coben and written by BAFTA and Emmy Award winning writer Danny Brocklehurst (Ordinary Lies, The Driver, Shameless).

Multi-award-winning Michael C Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) is playing Tom, a paediatric surgeon and single father of two teenage daughters who is struggling to deal with the loss of his wife from cancer more than two years previously. Living and raising his children in a beautiful gated community surrounded by close friends, Tom finds himself on a journey that transforms everyone he knows. How far will you go to protect your family? It's a question often asked, but Tom will now live it.

Amanda Abbington (Sherlock, Crooked House) joins Hall and is playing Sophie - a formidable detective sergeant. Intelligent, dynamic, perceptive and smart, Sophie lives in the same gated community as Tom and like him, is raising two kids single-handedly. Sophie knows you can't trust anybody and we glimpse that she is burdened with secrets of her own.

Amanda said: "The collaboration of Harlan Coben, Danny Brocklehurst and RED Productions is what drew me to this role. It's a fantastic project and I'm thrilled to be working with Michael C Hall and the rest of the talented cast. It's a great story and I hope people will love it"

Sophie is separated from her husband Josh who is played by Emmett J Scanlan (The Fall, Hollyoaks). Josh is desperately clinging onto his youth - going to gigs, partying all night and generally letting his family down at every opportunity. He does all this in plain sight, choosing as he does, to live in a battered old caravan on his estranged wife Sophie's, driveway.

Emmett said "To get to tell stories like this one, and to be surrounded by such talented people, it almost feels like I've gate-crashed a party... luck of the Irish it would seem..."

Best-known for her roles as Lady of the lake in Kaamelott and Joséphine Karlsson in Spiral, Audrey Fleurot stars as Zoe, a teacher living in a quintessentially English suburb with her husband of twenty years. She may appear to be the model innocence but when Neil's back is turned we catch glimpses of an altogether darker and more inscrutable woman. What is Zoe hiding?

Audrey said: "I'm a huge fan of Harlan's work and it's an honour for me to work with him in an English show of this level. I can't wait to see the result!"

Marc Warren (Hustle, Snatch, Mad Dogs) will star as Pete - Tom's best friend and sidekick. They served in the army together, they work in the hospital together and he's pretty much a second father to Tom's daughters. As we follow Pete's story we'll start to realise he's hiding a secret he can't even share with Tom. Marc added "A

Harlan Coben storyline and getting to work with Michael C Hall makes me very happy to be working with RED Production Company on Safe".

Adding to the stellar line-up are Nigel Lindsay (Victoria, Four Lions) and Laila Rouass (Holby, Stella, Footballers Wives) who play happily married couple, JoJo and Lauren Marshall. They have a rock-solid marriage, a beautiful daughter and a fairy-tale lifestyle. However, as their family become embroiled in a crime, their perfect little world explodes in ways they could never imagine.

Nigel commented: "It's a good sign when you read the first three episodes of a script and you're desperate to know what happens next. I read Safe and was hooked. I'm a big fan of Harlan Coben and Michael C Hall and am really looking forward to getting stuck in". Laila added "I've been a fan of Harlan's work for a long time and I am hugely excited to be a part of this project and to be filming in Manchester."

Safe is executive produced by Michael C Hall, Nicola Shindler, Harlan Coben, Danny Brocklehurst and RED's Head of Development, Richard Fee. The series is produced by RED Production Company (a STUDIOCANAL company), the multi-award-winning producers behind Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax.

Notes to Editors -

Harlan Coben

With over 70 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben's last ten consecutive novels, Home, Fool Me Once, The Stranger, Missing You, Six Years, Stay Close, Live Wire, Caught, Long Lost and Hold Tight all debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and lists around the world. His books are published in 43 languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in over a dozen countries.

RED Production Company

RED Production Company has produced some of the UK's most successful and award-winning dramas - from Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, to Russell T Davies' Cucumber and Queer As Folk, Danny Brocklehurst's Ordinary Lies and Lenny Henry's Danny and the Human Zoo. Their latest series, Trust Me starring Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who) will air on BBC One this August

Netflix

Netflix is the world's leading internet television network with 104 million members in over 190 countries enjoying more than 125 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including original series, documentaries and feature films. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments.

STUDIOCANAL

STUDIOCANAL, a 100% affiliate of CANAL+ Group held by Vivendi, is Europe's leader in production, right acquisition, distribution and international sales of feature films and TV series. STUDIOCANAL operates directly in all three major European markets, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. STUDIOCANAL owns one of the most important film libraries in the world, boasting more than 9000 titles from 60 countries, including 6000 feature films among which are the iconic Terminator 2, Breathless, Mulholland Drive and Belle de jour. STUDIOCANAL has fully-financed recent box office hits like Paddington, Shaun the Sheep and Non-Stop. Upcoming films backed by STUDIOCANAL include The Commuter featuring Liam Neeson, the highly-anticipated Paddington 2 by Paul King, and Aardman Studios' stop-motion movies Early Man by Nick Park and Shaun the Sheep 2. STUDIOCANAL is actively developing and distributing high-end TV series through its network of award-winning European production companies, including Tandem Productions in Germany (Crossing Lines, Spotless), the UK's RED Production Company (The Five, Happy Valley), Scandinavia's SAM created by Soren Sveistrup and Adam Price (Borgen, The Killing), and Spain's BAMB� PRODUCCIONES (Grand Hotel, Velvet). STUDIOCANAL has also stakes in the UK's SunnyMarch TV, created by Benedict Cumberbatch, Urban Myth Films and Guilty Party.

CANAL+ Group

CANAL+ Group is the leading pay-TV group in France, ranking first both for its premium-content networks with the generalist channel CANAL+ and associated channels, and its themed networks. With CANALSAT, it is also the top multi-channel platform and distributor for pay-TV offerings in metropolitan France and French territories overseas, as well as in French-speaking Africa. A pioneer in innovative TV services, CANAL+ Group has a high international profile, with a presence in pay-TV in Poland and Vietnam. Overall, CANAL+ Group subscribers number nearly 16 million worldwide.

Through its subsidiary STUDIOCANAL, CANAL+ Group is the European leader in production and distribution of feature films and TV series. A free-to-air TV operator with three national channels, including France fifth-ranking national channel, and in-house advertising sales division CANAL+ REGIE, the Group is also a benchmark player in commercial TV. CANAL+ Group is fully-owned by Vivendi, a global media and content production and distribution group.