Channel 4 commissions Steven Moffat drama Number 10 from Hartswood Films

Image: Channel 4 Press

By Jon Donnis

Channel 4 has confirmed a brand-new drama, Number 10, from Hartswood Films, the team behind Sherlock and Inside Man. Written by Steven Moffat, the series turns the spotlight on the world's most recognisable address, 10 Downing Street, and the chaos, comedy and humanity tucked inside its walls.

The set-up is sharp and a little mischievous. There's a Prime Minister hidden away in the attic, a coffee bar down in the basement, and somewhere in between a maze of ambition, romance, crises and bad wallpaper. It's a house where mice scurry through the skirting boards while nuclear secrets sit a room away, where a broken lift can spark as much tension as a looming international crisis, and where even the resident cat plays its part. The politics are fictional, but the dilemmas are pointedly real.

Moffat has framed Number 10 as a story not just about the leader upstairs but about everyone who passes through the building. From the conspiracy theorist pouring lattes in the café to the engineers trying to coax life back into the lift, from frazzled aides clinging to windowless offices to the Prime Minister's neighbours who didn't quite ask for the job of living next to power. It's Britain under one roof, messy, funny, infuriating and, maybe, hopeful.

Executive producer Sue Vertue described the project as a personal one for Moffat, pointing out that he has already explored two of the world's most famous doors, 221B Baker Street and the TARDIS, and now turns to the real one that sits on Downing Street.

Gwawr Lloyd, Acting Head of Drama at Channel 4, called the series bold, witty and insightful. She said the drama would give viewers a rare peek into one of the most iconic residences on the planet, switching between weighty decisions at the very top and the ordinary lives of those who keep the place running day to day.

The production brings together an impressive team, with Moffat and Vertue joined by producer Lawrence Till (The Devil's Hour, The Young Offenders) and director Ben Palmer (Douglas Is Cancelled, The Inbetweeners). The series will be produced in association with ITV Studios, who will also handle global distribution.

Casting and broadcast details are still to come, but Channel 4's Number 10 looks set to mix satire, drama and a touch of absurdity into a portrait of power unlike anything else on television.