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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Stephanie Colderick

ITV No Return: Is the drama based on a true story?

New ITV drama No Return follows the story of a family holiday gone very wrong when a British family gets caught up in a serious legal situation while holidaying abroad.

Starring Sheridan Smith in the lead role as Kathy, the mother of 16-year-old Noah who is accused of sexually assaulting a young boy while at a party on holiday, other big names in the cast include Philip Arditti and Michael Jibson. You can read the full cast here.

Read more TV news here.

The drama follows the family as they fight for their son's innocence and while all the characters are fake and the show is not based on a specific story, the screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst did use real-life situations for inspiration.

The original pitch for the drama was inspired by a story from Danny's friend who had a relative who was arrested while abroad and the difficulty of the situation.

He said: "He told me about the details of this event on a walk we were on one day. I just listened to it as a story that had happened to somebody."

The story stuck with Danny as he theoretically applied it to his own family as if one of his sons was arrested while on holiday. He said: "That you could go on a holiday with your kids and an accusation could be levelled at your child and they could get caught up in a system you don’t understand and is incredibly difficult to get out of."

The aim of No Return is to resonate with real people, real-life ordinary mums, and dads with children, and what it would be like to be caught up in that scary situation.

Previously Danny's works include Shameless and The Stranger and he believes No Return is the most relatable.

He said: "I often think to myself about how would something I’m writing resonate with these people who are ordinary, everyday people. I think more than a lot of my shows, No Return has that resonance."

No Return continues on ITV on Monday, February, 14 at 9pm.

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