Award-Winning Drama Writer Returns To BBC One

Dervla Kirwan and Lorraine Ashbourne star in Debbie Horsfield's sparky, raw and disturbing new six-part drama serial True Dare Kiss, an unfolding saga of intrigue, passion, revenge and redemption coming to BBC One this Spring.

When estranged father Stan (played by David Bradley) dies in unexpected circumstances, a secret buried for two decades threatens to surface.

His son and four daughters are torn between the need to hush up the facts and a desire to uncover the truth behind one single cataclysmic event which shattered the family 20 years before.

A stranger since the events of that night, prodigal daughter, Phil (Dervla Kirwan) returns for the funeral to find her childhood home unchanged, but her family virtually unrecognisable.

Eldest sister Nita (Pooky Quesnel) runs her business, family and home with ruthless efficiency, but her confident exterior belies a fragility born of the terror that she is second best in her husband's eyes.

Feisty and foul-mouthed Beth (Lorraine Ashbourne) contrives to terrorise everyone from her fellow football hooligans to her long-suffering teenage sons.

Reclusive brother Dennis (Paul Hilton), shares his life with strange companions, but his peculiar coping strategies belie an even deeper dysfunctionality.

Tormented by persistent and sinister nightmares, Alice (Esther Hall) has barely aged or matured since that fateful night, though it is she who, inadvertently, holds the key to the entire mystery.

And ex-lover, Nash (Paul McGann), is eager to pick up where he and Phil left off. Despite the fact that he's now married to Nita.

Forced to re-examine their actions, motives and even their memories, the siblings grapple with old rivalries and new desires in this vibrant, witty, and at times darkly comic, roller-coaster ride.

Debbie Horsfield says: "I've always been intrigued by family feuds, and the way a single event can have catastrophic and long-standing consequences.

"I'm also fascinated by the tricks memory plays, how six people can witness the same event, but each will remember it differently and will act according to their own particular interpretation – often with disastrous consequences."

The cast also includes: Brendan Coyle as Kaz; Dawn Steele as Tanya, Ciaran McMenamin as Bryce and Samantha Blakey plays Lola.

"We are thrilled to be producing a new Debbie Horsfield serial," says Kate Harwood, Head of Series & Serials for BBC Drama Production.

"Complex, characterful and witty with a compelling mystery at its heart, True Dare Kiss marks a new departure for a unique and much loved voice in contemporary British drama."

Currently filming in Manchester for transmission on BBC One in the spring, True Dare Kiss is produced by Marcus Wilson, the directors are Jeremy Webb (Eps 1,2,3) and Declan O'Dwyer (Eps 4,5,6), and Executive Producers are Debbie Horsfield (Cutting It, Making Out, The Riff-Raff Element and Born To Run) and Head of Series & Serials for BBC Drama Production, Kate Harwood.