Another novel drama idea for ITV

The international best selling fiction book, The Ice Cream Girls is to be turned into an ITV Drama the broadcaster has announced.

 Drama Commissioner, Laura Mackie at ITV says, “The quality of Kate Brooke’s scripts has attracted a fantastic cast and we’re delighted to be working on such a gripping contemporary thriller with Left Bank Pictures.”

Lorraine Burroughs and Jodhi May will play the lead roles of Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle, respectively. The story is adapted for television by Kate Brooke.

The story follows two vulnerable teenage girls, who in the summer of 1995 are accused of murdering their school teacher. For seventeen years, the two girls are forced to go their separate ways and lead very different lives. But, now in 2013 they are forced to confront each other and their dark, shared history.

With a lawyer for a mother, Serena appears to be from the right side of the tracks; pretty and popular with a bright future. Poppy, on the other hand, has never had the opportunities Serena takes for granted, and struggles through life with a disapproving stepfather who doesn’t want her around.

Fast-forward to present day and Serena is now married to a GP Evan, and they have their own 15-year-old daughter Vee. They are back in the same seaside town for the first time, as they care for Serena’s dying mother.

Meanwhile, Poppy is living in quite different circumstances. Having served seventeen years for a crime she still insists she didn’t commit, she has only one thing on her mind… the truth – If she didn’t kill Marcus, then who did?

Producer of the drama, Lucy Dyke said: “We are very excited to be in production on Kate Brooke’s captivating scripts, based on Dorothy Koomson’s bestselling novel. We have a stellar cast in place, led by two strong women, and look forward to bringing this powerful emotional thriller to the screen for ITV1.”

Readers were engrossed in the novel with its tangled web of deceit woven throughout the story as neither girl realised the devastating consequences of their actions, when it was first published in 2010 by writer, Dorothy Koomson.