The Split Up features a new city, a new family and a new creative force behind it.
The BBC has green-lit a spin-off for the The Split, two years after the broadcaster’s hit legal drama came to a close.
Ursula Rani Sarma (Smother, Delicious) is helming the six-part series, titled The Split Up, with original creator Abi Morgan executive producing.
This time around, viewers will leave London behind, instead being thrust into the “high-stakes world of Manchester’s divorce circuit”, the BBC has confirmed.
Speaking of the series and its new creative team, Morgan said: “After the success of The Split, it’s been great to see The Split Up take shape in lead writer Ursula Rani Sarma’s capable hands, reinvigorating all that audiences love.
“A new legal family, grabbing at life in a new city, battling new legal cases, as the professional and personal deliciously collide.
“A brilliant new cast of characters caught in the messiness of love, marriage, deception and divorce, make it their own. It is ripe to be taken into the hearts of anyone who loved the show.”
Much like The Split, which starred Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan, its spin-off will focus on a single family of lawyers, the Kishans, who run a “British Asian high net worth family law firm”, a synopsis for the series states.
And like the Defoes before them, it looks the Kishans are in for a rollercoaster of drama after a family secret from the past comes to light, throwing the family firm’s future and legacy in the balance.
Rani Sarma said of the series: “I watched The Split with admiration over the years, and I was honoured to be asked to create The Split Up: a spin-off which introduces a whole new family and city while still holding on to the warmth, humour and heartbreak of Abi Morgan’s original series.
“To be able to place a contemporary British Asian family, helmed by brilliant women, at the heart of a primetime drama series is a dream come true for me as a writer who believes strongly in the importance of representation on our screens.
“It has been a joy to work alongside Abi, as well as Lucy Dyke, Jane Featherstone and Sumrah Mohammed at SISTER to bring it to glorious life.”
Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, added: “Abi Morgan’s The Split is one of our most loved and talked about dramas and a favourite with viewers, and The Split Up, set in Manchester and brilliantly written by Ursula Rani Sarma, promises to be just as compelling.
“The Split Up is as full of joy, heartbreak and intrigue as the original, with a fantastic new family we’ll fall in love with.”
Casting details have yet to be announced.
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