Jill Halfpenny has joined the cast of ‘Dark Mon£y’.
The former ‘Waterloo Road’ star will appear alongside Babou Ceesay, Rebecca Front, Susan Wokoma, Olive Gray, Ellen Thomas, and former ‘EastEnders’ actor Gary Beadle in the thought-provoking four-part BBC One drama, which is written by Levi David Addai.
The drama will tell the fictional story of the Mensah family whose world is turned upside down when their youngest son Isaac (Babou) reveals he was abused by a renowned filmmaker while in Hollywood shooting a movie.
When asked what attracted her to the role, Jill said: "It was letting the audience see moment by moment what those people have to go through, and not just those things that we see on TV when someone walks out of a law court and is really happy or really sad.
"Let’s go all the way back to the very beginning and show the devastation that happens."
In the drama, the family accept a substantial pay-off to keep quiet and plan to use the money to start a new life.
They also hope to avoid the publicity of pressing charges against a celebrity, but cost of staying silent could be too high.
Levi believes the drama will create plenty of debate between viewers, and he hopes it can lead to some people involved in similar real-life incidents "finding closure".
He said: "I know for sure there will be a lot of debate, because you put yourselves in the parents’ shoes and ask yourself would you do that, and each decision that the parents make will stir up a lot of debate.
"I didn’t have a fixed answer on what is the right or wrong way to deal with this, I have a moral guide where I don’t believe that accepting money for a wrong is the way forward – it’s not a judgement on people that do accept money, but it just doesn’t sit well for me.
"However, fortunately, I have never been in that position so it’s been really interesting to explore that through these characters.
"Drama can reach a lot of people. Maybe there are people out there who have accepted money, who are dealing with regret or guilt and may see this, and see some sort of hope that there is still a way of finding closure.
"Maybe it will make people think twice about using pay-offs as a method of controlling people.
"I’m unsure, but I know for sure it will make people talk a lot and debate the decisions that the family makes."
Jill Halfpenny joins Dark Mon£y cast
