Maryland with Suranne Jones New Drama for ITV

Maryland, a three-part relationship drama created by Suranne Jones, a BAFTA and RTS award-winning actor, and screenwriter Anne-Marie O’Connor, is about two sisters who have grown apart over the years but learn to love and respect one another all over again after devastating events. Maryland focuses on the sisters’ relationship, which has been torn apart by complex family circumstances, causing them to become distant and consumed by their own lives.

Commented Suranne Jones: “I’m so excited to be working with Anne Marie on this project. We both immediately knew how we wanted this story to unfold and to have the support from ITV and Monumental Television to let us tell it in our own way has been a breath of fresh air. Maryland delves into family dynamics and the way in which we ‘label’ each other, sometimes never letting ourselves or our siblings break free from those roles. We look at how we grow apart from one another and how sometimes we don’t really know anything about the people we call our own.

Suranne continued: “I love how complex sibling relationships can be and I’m thrilled we get to do it over 3 wonderful hours and not as a ‘side story’. Maryland is an uncomfortable, funny and sometimes difficult story with two sisters at its heart and we can’t wait to take our audience along for the ride.”

Monumental Television (Harlots, Ghosts, Murder in Provence), an ITV Studios banner, will create the drama in collaboration with ITV Studios, which will star Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack, Save Me, Vigil) as Becca, a down-to-earth Manchester native. Suranne will also serve as an executive producer on the drama, which is a co-production with Teamakers Productions.

Maryland is the first UK drama commission for screenwriter Anne-Marie O’Connor, who will also executive produce the production. She is also the writer and executive producer of the upcoming comedy Hullraisers, as well as the creator of the comic series Trollied.

In Maryland, Anne-Marie introduces us to Becca and Rosaline, two sisters who have forged ahead with their family life and jobs, growing apart over time and circumstance. However, the sisters receive sad news when the body of an older woman is discovered at morning on Laxey Beach on the Isle of Man.

Each sister travels to the Isle of Man to find and repatriate their mother’s body, Mary, who they learn has been living a double life, leaving their father Richard at home in Manchester while establishing another world for herself….. Maryland.

The sisters are stranded on the island with each other and can’t avoid the fallout from their mother’s secrets and falsehoods.

Commented screenwriter Anne-Marie O’Connor: “I’m thrilled to be working with Suranne and Monumental on Maryland and for ITV to have given us the opportunity to write a character-led show, at the heart of which is a love story about two sisters. From the start, Suranne and I have wanted to tell a story about the roles that are ascribed to us in families – especially as women – and to look at the legacy of a woman who decided to step away from the traditional role but wasn’t honest about her decision.”

The drama will be executive produced by Alison Owen, Debra Hayward (Murder in Provence, Ghosts, Harlots) and Katie Kelly (Harlots) on behalf of Monumental Television.

Commented Alison Owen and Katie Kelly: “Maryland beautifully reveals the complexities of a sisterly relationship, and we can all relate to Anne-Marie and Suranne’s brilliant exploration of how family dynamics can shape and define us.”

Maryland has been commissioned for ITV by Head of Drama, Polly Hill and Commissioner Chloe Tucker.

Commented Chloe Tucker: “We are delighted to be working with Suranne Jones and Anne-Marie Connor on their show, Maryland. It is an incredibly moving and well- observed piece about family, as we follow two sisters, Becca and Rosaline, dealing with the ties that bind them and the secrets that have kept them apart.”

Filming will begin later this year with further details on casting and the appointment of key executives released closer to filming commencing.

ITV Studios will be responsible for the international distribution of the drama. Both Suranne Jones and Anne-Marie O’Connor are represented by The Artists Partnership who have worked on the various deals for the drama.