Viewpoint: ITV announces five-part thriller from screenwriter Ed Whitmore

ITV has announced brand new five-part series Viewpoint.

Described as a “surveillance thriller”, Viewpoint is written by Emmy and Edgar award winning screenwriter Ed Whitmore.

Based on an idea by Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer, who has co-created the series with Ed Whitmore, Viewpoint follows a police surveillance investigation into a tight knit Manchester community and explores whether it is ever possible to observe the lives of others with true objectivity and zero effect.

A synopsis reveals: “When beloved primary school teacher Gemma King vanishes into thin air, DC Martin Young decides to set up his observation post in the home of single mum Zoe Sturges. His reasoning is simple – Zoe’s flat commands a panoramic view of all the comings and goings in Westbury Square.

“More specifically, he can see straight into the flat that Gemma shares with boyfriend Greg Sullivan..…the prime suspect in her disappearance.

“But Martin is a man carrying his own burden of trauma and guilt and he starts to question if he can trust what he observes? Could he be projecting his own loneliness and remorse onto the ostracised Greg?

“And are his developing feelings for the combative Zoe – with her own penchant for voyeurism – compromising his ability to do his job?”

ITV say that Viewpoint offers up a “contemporary, character-driven murder mystery with a seductively intimate feel.”

They add: “But ultimately, it’s as much about friendship, trust and community as it is about solving a crime – it’s about the tension between our public and private lives and the secrets and horrors that thrive behind closed doors……especially when we think no-one’s watching. ”

Tiger Aspect Productions, part of EndemolShine UK will produce the series with Lucy Bedford executive producing, Ashley Way directing and Juliet Charlesworth producing.

Writer and co-creator Ed Whitmore said: “I’ve always been eager to find a story that explored voyeurism in a fresh and innovative way, not least because it makes such compulsive and cinematic subject matter.

“As soon as I read Harry Bradbeer’s pitch which put a young surveillance officer in the flat of a single mother, I could see all the tensions and conflicts arising from this clash of the personal and the professional, the juxtaposition of a crime story and the intimate environment of a domestic residence.

“And I saw a chance for a vividly different hybrid of police procedural and up-close-and-personal portrait of a community, with the crime story unfolding in both arenas simultaneously. I’m thrilled to be working with director Ashley Way and Executive Producer Lucy Bedford and her team at Tiger Aspect, and I’m greatly looking forward to filming in Manchester and seeing the scripts come to life.”

Casting is to be confirmed with filming in Manchester in spring 2020.