Helena Bonham Carter has signed up to star in the new 3-part drama from BAFTA-winning writer Russell T Davies, ‘Nolly.’
Forty years after Noele Gordon’s shock sacking from ‘Crossroads‘, the drama explores the all-powerful reign, and fall from grace, of the inimitable Noele Gordon, TV legend and Queen of the Midlands, the darling of the establishment until it turned on her and betrayed her.
Noele (or Nolly to her friends) was a legend in her lifetime. As flame-haired widow Meg Richardson in the long-running soap opera ‘Crossroads’, she was one of the most famous people in Britain. Then in 1981, at the height of the show’s success and the peak of Nolly’s fame, she was axed without ceremony, without warning and with no explanation. With the boss’s words “all good things must come to an end” ringing in her ears, Noele Gordon found herself thrown out of the show that was her life for over 18 years.
Helena Bonham Carter said; “Noele Gordon was a fascinating, complex, brilliant and gutsy woman – none of which I knew before I read Russell T Davies’ script. I’m so thrilled to help tell Nolly’s long overdue and largely forgotten story. Russell’s screenplay is a work of brilliance and I hope I’ll do him and Nolly justice. I can’t wait to start.”
Russell T Davies went on to comment; “One of my very first jobs in TV was a trial script for Crossroads, and I’ve wanted to write the story of behind the scenes on that show for 40 years. At last, the truth can be told!”
ITV has commissioned Nolly, a 3 x 60’ drama that will be directed by Peter Hoar. Nicola Shindler (It’s A Sin, Ridley Road, Happy Valley, Finding Alice, Queer as Folk) and Russell T Davies will executive produce.
‘Nolly’ will go into production in 2022.
