Channel 4 has commissioned Adult Material, a powerful and timely new 4-part drama from Olivier and Evening Standard Award-winning writer Lucy Kirkwood and starring BAFTA-winner Sheridan Smith (Cilla, Dates, The Moorside). Set in modern Britain, Adult Material delves inside the porn industry from the perspective of a woman who has been working in it her entire adult life and has seen it grow from a seedy backroom enterprise to a legitimate and highly profitable arm of the telecommunications business. The drama from Fifty Fathoms will investigate the myriad of ways that sex, power and consent are intrinsically connected, providing a unique perspective and compelling exploration of questions that have become particularly resonant around the world in recent months.

The porn industry is worth almost $100 billion worldwide each year, and Adult Material will look at the reality of life on the factory floor in 2018. What’s it like to see the cost of your product fall as demand rises? How has porn’s influence on mainstream culture affected our ideas of consent? And what does it feel like when your body is on everyone’s computer but you still can’t get on the P.T.A?

Smith plays Jolene Dollar, mum of three and leading British porn star for two decades. Maybe in porn years she’s getting on, but she's a hard worker and she loves what she does. After all, porn is one of the only industries in the world where women don’t just get paid equal to men…they get paid more.

One day on set, Jolene is introduced to Amy. Amy is 19, not much older than Jolene’s oldest daughter, Phoebe. An aspiring dancer recovering from an injury, Amy looks up to Jolene. And Jolene looks after Amy the way that she looks after every new girl on set. But she can’t protect Amy from her own choices, and soon her relationship with this unstable young woman will see Jolene’s own career and complicated home life start to unravel, as everything Jolene thought she knew about herself comes undone.

Adult Material looks at how sex and money go hand in hand. What we gain, and what we give up, when our sexuality is given to us, shrink wrapped by the internet. It asks questions about power, desire and consent not only in porn itself, but in the porn tinted wider world. Most of all, Adult Material is the story of one woman’s complex journey away from porn and towards sex.

Beth Willis, Channel 4 Head of Drama, says: “We’re thrilled to be working with two incredibly talented women on this project; Sheridan and Lucy. Lucy’s scripts are a gripping, powerful and raw look at the current state of our relationship with sex and the porn industry in Britain. Adult Material tackles some important issues; sex, power, money, consent and how all these things have an impact on one woman and her family. We can’t wait for Sheridan to bring such a fascinating character to life.”

Sheridan Smith says: “Adult Material tackles some really important topics, topics that I’m sure will resonate with people up and down the UK. I think its taboo-busting drama which not only confronts these questions head on but is also a brilliantly brave and unabashed story told with real heart. Thanks to broadcasters such as Channel 4 and Lucy’s thought-provoking and insightful writing, Adult Material gives Jolene the platform and voice she deserves and it feels like the perfect time to tell her story. I’ve played some truly fascinating women in my career, from all walks of life, and I can’t wait to step into Jolene’s shoes.”

Lucy Kirkwood, writer, added “I am delighted that Channel 4 has given Jolene a home, it feels like exactly the right place and the right time to look at the way that economics colours every aspect of female experience. I am also over the moon to be working with Sheridan again, she is an actor of genius and I know that in her brilliant hands Jolene will be warm, funny, complicated and truthful”.

Patrick Spence, MD Fifty Fathoms added; “This is simply a dream come true for us: to see Lucy’s courage and skill rewarded with this kind of commitment and belief.”

Adult Material (4 x 60’) has been commissioned by Beth Willis, Head of Drama at Channel 4 and Lee Mason, Commissioning Executive, at Channel 4. The series is produced by Fifty Fathoms and is Executive Produced by Patrick Spence and Lucy Kirkwood. Adult Material is produced by Kath Mattock. The drama will go into production in 2019 and will be distributed by Endemol Shine International.

ENDS

About Fifty Fathoms

Patrick Spence set up Fifty Fathoms in 2010. Productions so far include:

THE EDDY for Netflix, written by the Bafta Award winning Jack Thorne and directed by the Academy Award winning Damien Chazelle, about a jazz club in contemporary Paris. Greenlit for production 2018.

GUERRILLA for Showtime and Sky Atlantic, written and directed by the Academy Award winning John Ridley (12 Years A Slave), starring Idris Elba, Freida Pinto, Babou Ceesay, Rory Kinnear, Denise Gough, Zawe Ashton and Danny Mays.

THE A WORD Seasons 1 and 2, Peter Bowker’s 6-part drama for BBC1 and Sundance, starring Chris Eccleston and Morven Christie.

FORTITUDE Seasons 1-3, Simon Donald’s horror story set in the Arctic for Sky Atlantic and Amazon, starring Stanley Tucci, Dennis Quaid, Michael Gambon, Sofie Grabol, Ken Stott, Richard Dormer and Chris Eccleston.

MARVELLOUS, Peter Bowker's 90' film for BBC2, starring Toby Jones and directed by Julian Farino, which won three Baftas in 2015 (Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress), and two Bafta Nominations (Best Writer and Best Actor) as well as several RTS, BPG and Writers Guild Awards.