Channel 4 has revealed a selection of first-look on-set images of the cast of Ben Wheatley’s forthcoming black comedy zombie series Generation Z.
Flesh-eating favourites among the cast include The Royle Family and Brookside’s Sue Johnston (main pic) and GBH’s Robert Lindsay (below). The six-parter is currently in production and filming in Wales, produced by The Forge (Help, National Treasure, Kiri), and described by the producers as “a coming-of-age parable for our very strange times – cut with a heavy dose of outlandish gore.”
Set in the fictional town of Dambur – the kind of place with stark opportunities and not much to do– it’s the last place you’d expect the zombie apocalypse to break out. But when an army convoy overturns outside a care home, a chemical leak starts to have an adverse effect on the residents there. The OAPs, led by Cecily and Frank (Johnston and The World’s End’s Paul Benthall), escape the grasp of the army looking to contain their angry, violent, insatiable hunger for raw flesh.
On the night of the outbreak, teenagers – Charlie, Kelly, Steff and Finn, played respectively by Jay Lycurgo (The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself), Buket Komur (Our House), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy), and Viola Prettejohn (The Nevers) – are living normal teenage lives: tinnies, messy feelings, complex relationships and ignoring their A-Level prep. But the gang abruptly find themselves at the centre of the virus when Kelly’s nan Janine, played by Eastenders legend Anita Dobson (below) becomes infected and attacks her.
Generation Z is “about intergeneration justice and community breakdown that boldly satirizes a world where truth is stranger than fiction, exploring not just the political fault lines in our society but also the very real issues facing teenagers today.”
Also joining the core cast is St Helen’s comic and Benidorm star Johnny Vegas and, from Wheatley’s own Sheffield-set 2011 folk-horror/contract killer crossover Kill List Robin Hill and Gareth Tunley.
Wheatley, who also counts cult 2011 caravanning comedy Sightseers, 2015’s big-screen adaptation of JG Ballard’s High-Rise and the recent blockbuster Meg 2 among his portfolio, said: “It’s been amazing working on Generation Z with The Forge and Channel 4. It’s my first original series and a project very close to my heart. I hope everyone loves it as much as we do.”
Rebecca Holdsworth, commissioning editor at Channel 4, added: “We are so excited that Ben Wheatley has chosen C4 as the place to make his first original TV drama. Generation Z promises to have all of the unique visual flair and mischievous spirit that characterises Ben’s film work; it is in turn wickedly funny, deftly political, and delivers on the kind of eye-popping shocks and thrills that mean this is shaping up to be a zombie drama like no other.”
Generation Z is produced by The Forge for Channel 4, in association with ZDF and All3media International. It has been commissioned by Channel 4’s head of drama, Caroline Hollick and commissioning editor, Rebecca Holdsworth. The series is written and directed by Ben Wheatley and is produced by Alex Kazamia and executive produced by Ben Wheatley, Mark Pybus, George Faber and Beth Willis.
