Blackpool (TV series)

Blackpool
Also known as	Viva Blackpool
Genre	Musical • Drama • Crime
Created by	Peter Bowker
Written by	Peter Bowker
Directed by	Coky Giedroyc Julie Anne Robinson Catherine Morshead
Starring	David Morrissey Sarah Parish David Tennant Georgia Taylor Thomas Morrison Steve Pemberton David Bradley Bryan Dick Kevin Doyle John Thomson
Composer	Rob Lane
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7 (list of episodes) Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox television with "list_episodes" parameter using self-link. See Infobox instructions and MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE.
Production
Executive producers	David Bernath Sally Haynes Laura Mackie
Producer	Kate Lewis
Cinematography	Lukas Strebel
Editors	Anthony Combes David Rees
Running time	60 minutes 90 minutes (Viva Blackpool!)
Production companies	BBC BBC America
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	11 November 2004 (2004-11-11) – 10 June 2006 (2006-06-10)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Blackpool is a British television musical drama serial, produced in-house by the BBC, that first broadcast on BBC One on 11 November 2004. Starring David Morrissey, Sarah Parish, and David Tennant, the serial was written by Peter Bowker, who had previously written for BBC One's modern adaptation of The Canterbury Tales and BBC Two's Flesh and Blood, and directed by Coky Giedroyc and Julie Anne Robinson. The series was filmed on location in Brentford and Blackpool itself, and broadcast across six weeks at 9:00 pm on Thursdays, until 16 December 2004.

The plot concerns the murder of a young man in a Blackpool arcade, and how it affects the people involved in the arcade and the investigation. As the investigation proceeds, it takes its toll on the characters; Ripley (Morrissey), under suspicion of murder, finds his public and private life slowly unravelling as both his bullying nature and long-forgotten demons from his past return to haunt him, whilst Carlisle (Tennant), intent on proving Ripley is the murderer and planning to use Natalie (Parish) to get to him, finds himself genuinely falling in love with her instead.

The series also starred Kevin Doyle, John Thomson, Georgia Taylor and Steve Pemberton in supporting roles. For its broadcast on BBC America in 2005, the series was renamed Viva Blackpool. Subsequently, as a result of its broadcast in the United States, the series went on to win a Peabody Award for BBC Worldwide, the commercial overseas distribution subsidiary of the BBC.^[1] In 2006, a feature-length sequel to the original, also known as Viva Blackpool, broadcast on BBC One.^[2][3]