EXCLUSIVE: Buzz is building for ITV phone hacking drama The Hack and we’ve got some exclusive images to take the story to the next level.
ITV’s drama series from the storied creative trio of multi-BAFTA Award winner Jack Thorne, director Lewis Arnold (Sherwood) and producer Patrick Spence (Mr Bates vs the Post Office) tells the story of how investigative reporter Nick Davies uncovered phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World more than a decade ago. Deadline revealed the project back in January and Australia’s Stan is co-producer.
David Tennant stars as Davies and can be seen working his magic in several images alongside Robert Carlyle, who plays Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook. Cook led the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan, which is also told via The Hack.
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Pictured below is Mr Bates star Toby Jones as Alan Rusbridger, who was editor of The Guardian when the paper was leading the reporting into dodgy goings-on at the News of the World.
ITV and Stan spent a year quietly filming, editing and laying the groundwork for The Hack, which had working titles including Broken News and Mandrake. Premiere date is yet to be set.
The show also stars Rose Leslie, Dougray Scott, Eve Myles, Adrian Lester, Katherine Kelly, Kevin Doyle, Neil Maskell, Lara Pulver, Lee Ingleby, Pip Torrens, Lisa McGrillis, Sean Pertwee, Robert Bathurst, Richard Pepple, Nadia Albina, Phil Davis, Ace Bhatti, Charlie Brooks, Paul Kaye and Steve Pemberton.
The phone hacking scandal led to the closure of the News of the World and imprisonment of its ex-editor Andy Coulson. Davies wrote an award-winning book about it, Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch. The headline-grabbing story reared its head again recently after Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) apologized to Prince Harry, settled with him and for the first time admitted “unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.”
ITV Studios is producing with Anonymous, United Agents and Casarotto Ramsay-backed AC Chapter One, with the pair re-teaming following the smash hit success of 2024’s Mr Bates, the ITV drama that broke viewing records and generated headlines for weeks. Thorne’s One Shoe Films is also a co-producer. Between them, Thorne, Arnold and Spence have won seven BAFTAs.
