New True Crime Drama “Delia Balmer” for ITV with Anna Maxwell Martin and Shaun Evans

ITV has announced a new true crime drama commission called “Delia Balmer” which will star Anna Maxwell Martin and Shaun Evans. The drama is written by Nick Stevens and produced by World Productions.

ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill commissioned Delia Balmer (w/t), a four-part drama from ITV Studios’ internationally acclaimed World Productions label, based on the amazing true story of Delia Balmer, who survived a near-fatal romance with killer John Sweeney.

Actress Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, A Spy Among Friends) and actor/director Shaun Evans (Endeavour, Vigil) will play Delia Balmer and John Sweeney, respectively.

Anna Maxwell Martin said: “Telling an important story with the excellent team from World Productions, producer Ken Horn, director Julia Ford and a brilliant cast is always an exciting proposition! As it is brought to life by Nick Stevens, hopefully we will do Delia due diligence.”

Shaun Evans said: “I’ve previously worked with World Productions and ITV separately, so I’m looking forward to joining forces to tell this story. A story that is quite rightly told through the victim’s lens, Delia. We have an excellent script from Nick Stevens and I couldn’t be more delighted to work with Anna.”

Nick Stevens (The Pembrokeshire Murders) adapts Delia Balmer’s book Living with a Serial Killer for the screen, while Simon Heath (CEO of World Productions, winner of numerous awards) serves as executive producer on the film (Save Me, Line of Duty, Anne) Delia Balmer describes the abuse she endured at the hands of John Sweeney and the harrowing experience she had dealing with the police and the criminal court system as they attempted to bring him to justice.

ITV’s Polly Hill and Drama Commissioner Huw Kennair Jones have ordered the show. From ITV’s standpoint, Huw will be in charge of supervising the drama’s production.

Huw Kennair Jones said: “Delia Balmer’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit when facing unimaginable evil. Nick Steven’s scripts have brilliantly captured the fortitude of a truly remarkable woman and her journey to achieving justice and the obstacles she had to overcome.

We’re thrilled to be working with Nick, Simon Heath and World Productions again, the team behind The Pembrokeshire Murders to bring this extraordinary story to the ITV1 and ITVX audience.”

In 1991, Delia is an agency nurse in London who lives a nomadic and isolated existence. She finally seems to have found a kindred soul in John Sweeney, a fellow free spirit she encounters in a bar.

Sweeney’s artsy, anti-establishment attitude gives way to a darker side as the relationship progresses, culminating in a series of violent attacks on Delia in which he tells her he killed his former fiancée and disposed of her body in an Amsterdam canal.

Sweeney is taken into custody, but the court grants him bail despite the obvious risk he poses. He starts chasing for Delia right away and attacks her in a brutal, near-fatal way. Though she makes it, Sweeney manages to escape and vanishes.

Delia, whose life was shattered by the stress and injuries done by Sweeney, courageously strives to repair it. Seven years later, though, Sweeney is back in North London after being arrested for the murder of another girlfriend. Delia’s evidence against Sweeney in court is crucial to the prosecution’s case, but it also threatens to ruin her already precarious recovery.

Despite the failures of the systems put in place to ensure her safety, this is the story of one woman’s incredible resolve to live amid unimaginable physical and emotional abuse.

Executive Producer Simon Heath commented: “Delia’s story is a unique and powerful one of a woman who survived terrible violence at the hands of a man who should never have been free to commit his heinous crimes. Delia’s story shines a light on the failings of the legal system to deal with male violence against women and so sadly still resonates today.”

The Producer is Ken Horn (The Devil’s Hour, Line of Duty, The Diplomat) and the Director is Julia Ford (Everything I Know About Love, The Bay).

Writing in the real crime genre, Nick Stevens is most known for his three-part drama The Pembrokeshire Murders, starring Luke Evans, which won the Welsh BAFTA for Drama in 2022. Together with World Productions, Nick wrote and directed the 2017 RTS Scotland Best Drama Award winner In Plain Sight, which followed the life of Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel and starred Martin Compston and Douglas Henshall.

Screenwriter Nick Stevens commented: “A few months after reading Living with a Serial Killer, I had my first meeting with Delia Balmer. She was unlike anybody I’d ever met before. Still suffering from PTSD ten-plus years after John Sweeney’s conviction, Delia is, though she would never admit it, a hero. A survivor whose determination to pursue the good in life – to dance, to travel, to live – is ultimately greater than her demons. I am hugely grateful to Delia, and the police who worked with her to finally secure Sweeney’s conviction, for enabling us to tell Delia’s incredible story.”

Filming will commence on Delia Balmer (w/t) this month.