NEW DELHI: PBS will soon commence telecast of the British drama Indian Summers, which had earlier been telecast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and won accolades.
The 10-episode British drama set in India in 1932 has been made by Masterpiece and shows the first signs of the end of British rule in India.
According to the story, members of the British ruling class are making their annual holiday retreat to the Himalayan foothills in Shimla where a brash old-school maven Cynthia Coffin (Julie Walters), runs a successful whites-only social club and schemes to advance the career of a snooty diplomat Ralph Whelan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), hoping to get him named as the next Viceroy.
While this is the main story, there are many subplots including the arrival of Ralph’s mysteriously widowed sister, Alice (Jemima West), and her baby son.
A young Indian clerk Aafrin (Nikesh Patel) not only takes an assassin’s bullet meant for Ralph in the first episode slated for 27 September but also comes across evidence that suggests the attempt was not the revolutionary act it was reported to be.
Julie Walters, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Jemima West, Nikesh Patel, Roshan Seth and Lillete Dubey star in this saga.
Set against the sweeping grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. But at the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything.
Indian Summers is the first Channel 4 commission from New Pictures. It is a co-production with Masterpiece on PBS in the US. It is created and written by Paul Rutman, directed by Anand Tucker and produced by Dan McCulloch. Executive producers are Charlie Pattinson, Elaine Pyke and Simon Curtis, and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece on PBS.
Indira Varma is co-executive producer for the series commissioned by Piers Wenger and Beth Willis for Channel 4. Indian Summers is being distributed internationally by All3M International.
