DEAD CLEVER

29 December, 2006 by The_Boss

ITV1 Monday 1st January 2007 9:00pm to 11:00pm

Men, you can’t live with ‘em, you can’t kill ‘em. But what’s the next best thing?

Suranne Jones (Vincent, Coronation Street, Strictly Confidential), Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet, Friends) and Dean Lennox Kelly (Shameless, Sorted) head the cast of Dead Clever, a black comedy about a woman who takes the ultimate revenge on her husband.

Julie Bottomley (Suranne Jones) has been married to Ian (Dean Lennox Kelly) for ten years when she discovers he has been having a long term affair with her sister, Karen (Rachel Leskovac) and the child Julie thought was her nephew is in fact Ian’s son. Her first reaction is to kill him. But rather than bump him off herself and risk life imprisonment, she conceives an intricate plan to get her revenge and allow her to start a new life. But having conjured up such a fantastic plan, will she be able to resist letting Ian know just how dead clever she has been?

Julie relocates to Devon, and using an alias, she starts a new life running a pub. But her past catches up with her when her best friend from school Sarah (Helen Baxendale) turns up in the pub on holiday with her kids and husband. The two resurrect their friendship and Julie confides in her what really happened on that fateful night.

Sarah is at first horrified and then amazed - it’s a brilliant story! Sarah tells her bosses at the publishing company where she works and they love it too. They want to publish it – as long as Julie re-works the ending.

But the more people that know, the more likely the truth is to come out.


Dead Clever is written by Sally Wainwright (At Home With The Braithwaites), produced by Rebecca Hodgson and directed by Dearbhla Walsh (Funland, Shameless). Sita Williams is the Executive Producer.