{"id":413774,"date":"2026-04-23T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:05:11","slug":"andrea-riseborough-ashley-walters-star-in-itv-thriller-first-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413774\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrea Riseborough & Ashley Walters Star In ITV Thriller ‘First Woman’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: To Leslie star Andrea Riseborough<\/a> and Adolescence\u2018s Ashley Walters<\/a> will front an out-of-this-world ITV<\/a> thriller drama, First Woman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline hears ITV Studios-owned Mammoth Screen, Blade Runner 2099 firm Alcon Television and ZDF<\/a> in Germany are attached to co-produce the six-part lunar series, which will dart between space and Earth, blending sci-fi and thriller elements.<\/p>\n

\n\tPhilip Martin is the director, with Lydia Yeoman and George Oakes, who had the original idea, the creators. The series is being co-financed by Alcon Television Group and ITV Studios, the latter of which has international sales rights.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the logline: When Ben Reith\u00a0(Walters)\u00a0is woken in his London home to be told that his wife Claire (Riseborough) has gone missing, it\u2019s the start of a global news story, because Claire is an astronaut crewing the UK\u2019s first moonbase and she\u2019s disappeared into the long lunar night.<\/p>\n

\n\tClaire is the first woman to set foot on the moon. A biologist taking part in a groundbreaking research project, her disappearance throws suspicion on her fellow astronauts and China\u2019s rival base.\u00a0With hundreds of thousands of miles between them, can Ben uncover the truth behind his wife\u2019s disappearance?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series marks Oscar nominee Riseborough\u2019s first television project since the 2024 HBO miniseries The Regime and comes during an ongoing hot streak for the actress in which she\u2019s landed film roles in Johnny Depp pic Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol<\/a> and Don DeLillo adaptation Zero K<\/a> and acted in the likes of The Good Boy and Goodbye June.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Walters, his stock continues to rise on the back of his Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated role in Netflix\u2019s Adolescence and his first feature as director, Animol, which debuted in Berlin<\/a>. He\u2019s also been cast in HBO series Dune: Prophecy<\/a> and was the star of Netflix\u2019s Top Boy.<\/p>\n

\n\tITV\u2019s Director of Drama Polly Hill commissioned\u00a0the drama, saying: \u201cI wanted ITV to make this the moment I read it. The team that has come on board on and off screen is incredible, and a testament to the wonderful and original scripts.\u00a0Ashley Walters and Andrea Riseborough are such exciting casting, and Philip Martin is going to take the audience on such an incredible journey, that I am thrilled to share with the audience.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe scripts come from lead writer Lydia Yeoman (Curfew), Oakes and Ben Schiffer. Julia Stannard (War and Peace) is the producer. Mammoth Screen\u2019s founder and Chief Creative Officer, Damien Timmer, is executive producer alongside James Gandhi, Martin, Oakes and Yeoman.\u00a0Mammoth Screen\u2019s Creative Director,\u00a0Rebecca Keane,\u00a0oversaw development of the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlcon Television Group will co-produce the series with Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, Scott Parish, Diego Piasek and\u00a0Ben Roberts serving as executive producers. This marks the first time the company as co-financed a co-production of this sort, as it seeks to further push into international TV through similar deals.<\/p>\n

\n\tUNIT VFX will work with Mammoth Screen and Alcon delivering\u00a0creative visual effects during production, while Poli Productions creative exec Rob Carlisle is teaming with Martin and production designer Gillian Devenney to create the lunar vistas.\u00a0The lunar landscape and moonbase are being housed at Studio Ulster, the UK\u2019s largest virtual production studio.<\/p>\n

\n\tITV\u2019s Director of Drama, Polly Hill, will be responsible for drama\u2019s production from the broadcaster\u2019s perspective. The show is being produced in association with and distributed internationally by ITV Studios, with further funding support from Northern Ireland Screen.\u00a0Filming is underway in Belfast supported by Northern Ireland Screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tITV and ZDF will be banking the star power of Riseborough and Walters, two of the UK\u2019s hottest acting talents right now, and the ambition of such a large scale production.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs a kid, I dreamed, perhaps more than anything, of space,\u201d said Riseborough.\u00a0\u201cOf emptiness and stars, and the vastness of all that those \u2018grounded\u2019 reflected on in verse. I can\u2019t imagine a kinder, bolder, braver team than Philip and Ashley with whom to step into that realm.\u00a0This will be endlessly compelling \u2013 I hope \u2013 for all who want to journey with us. I cannot wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWalters added: \u201cWhat an honour to be a part of such a bold and propulsive drama with a team of people that I have dreamt of working with. I always want to be a part of projects that make us converse and think outside the box. This one does just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMammoth Screen\u2019s Gandhi and Timmer said called the series \u201cthe ultimate emotional rollercoaster\u201d and added it was \u201cgoing to be one of the most ambitious ITV dramas ever made,\u201d while Alcon\u2019s Kosove and Johnson on behalf of Alcon Television Group called it a \u201cgripping, character-driven thriller set against the backdrop of the modern space race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMartin noted the action would switch between Mission Control in the UK and the lunar surface. \u201cThis is a race against time like no other, with the remaining astronauts under increasing pressure and Ben hoping against hope that he and his wife can be reunited,\u201d he added. \u201cBut how well can two people really know each other?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYeoman added: \u201cSet in the exciting \u2013 and as-yet-unexplored \u2013 world of private space travel, First Woman is a thriller unlike anything else we\u2019ve seen. This is the story of a marriage put through the ultimate test. It\u2019s rare that you get given the opportunity to tell a story with such ambition and scope, and we\u2019re eternally grateful to Polly at ITV and Alcon for allowing us to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: To Leslie star Andrea Riseborough and Adolescence\u2018s Ashley Walters will front an out-of-this-world ITV thriller drama, First…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10832,140861,321,93,12079,61,60,8642,181519],"class_list":{"0":"post-413774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-andrea-riseborough","9":"tag-ashley-walters","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-first-woman","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-itv","16":"tag-zdf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}