London is set to be submerged in a new drama coming to ITV next month.
Flood starts with a storm of hurricane proportions crashes into the Scotttish coast, devastating the sleepy town of Wick. Mountainous tides barrel mercilessly along the North Coast of Britain, heading for London. However the authorities remain sceptical that nature could deal any blow that London’s Thames Barrier, the largest fixed tidal defence in the world, could not withstand.
Rob Morrison, (Robert Carlyle) head of Defiant Engineering, is tasked with carrying out a maintenance check of the Thames Barrier where his ex-wife, Sam, (Jessalyn Gilsig) is the Barrier’s Director of Operations.
The family involvement in the story also includes Morrison’s estranged father, engineering genius Professor Leonard Morrison (Tom Courtenay) who is desperately attempting to contact the Barrier high command with a warning about the potential ineffectiveness of the structure.
As water levels soar and with a unique set of weather conditions closing in Rob realises that his father’s worst predictions are coming true and the trio must put aside their personal differences to mount an operation to save London from certain destruction.
After a dramatic forecast of the devastation to come from crisis control centre, Cobra, headed by Patricia Nash, (Joanne Whalley), the Deputy Prime Minister (David Suchet) finally begins the evacuation of the capital.
Then the unthinkable happens: the Barrier is overwhelmed by an immense and terrifying surge with drowns thousands of trapped passengers. As the city’s wold-famous landmarks – Tower Bridge, the London Eye and Big Ben – are submerged eight million Londoners are about to become heroes or victims as they struggle to survive the biggest disaster Britain’s capital has ever faced.
According to Carlyle “the biggest character in the film is the storm itself, which is a constant backdrop to the story, but there are three main character areas that are focused on. The first area is Rob, Sam and Leonard’s stories who are the people who know what’s happening and know what’s coming and are trying to save the day.”
“The second strand is Ralph Brown, who plays Neil, and his daughter Mel who represent the ordinary public that are getting hit by this thing and how they cope with it and manage to survive. The last area that we focus on is the political arena – we have David Suchet as the Deputy Prime Minister and Joanne Whalley as the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and we follow the choices, sometimes awful ones, which they have to make. It’s about 24 hours or so in the life of these people and how they actually manage to escape and cope with this disastrous thing.”
Co-star Jessalyn Gilsig says she was attracted to the production because “I thought it was an interesting take on a disaster film. It has a lot of adventure and is really fun and I love movies like that, I love the energy of them. But then it’s also very human and has all these great stories about families and relationships and parents and children – I think that’s quite unique so it was really good to be a part of it.”
The production was shot over eleven weeks in South Africa and over two weeks on location in London and is a co-production between Power, Moonlighting Films (South Africa) and Muse Entertainment Enterprises (Canada).
