COUNSELS: NEW SCOTTISH LEGAL DRAMA ANNOUNCED FOR BBC ONE

The BBC has commissioned Counsels, an original high-stakes legal drama, co-created by Scottish writers Bryan Elsley (The Crow Road, Skins) and BBC Writers’ Drama Room graduate Gillian McCormack. Set and filmed in and around Glasgow, the eight-part series is made by Balloon Scotland (Champion, Clique, Newark Newark) for BBC iPlayer, BBC Scotland and BBC One.

Counsels follows five young lawyers who once trained together at one of Scotland’s elite law schools, but are now scattered across the profession and find themselves facing each other in the courts of Glasgow.

Some will rise to the top, while others risk losing everything as their careers teeter on the edge when they lock horns in their biggest cases yet. The ambitious lawyers must navigate a legal battlefield where their friendships begin to fracture, love affairs crumble, and the fight for justice threatens to tear them all apart.

Bryan Elsley says: “I am delighted to be creating a show with BBC Scotland, where my career as a writer started many years ago. We have had unique access to the lawyers of Glasgow, and their experiences which will translate into a punchy, fast-moving show, based on their incredible and characterful stories.”

Gillian McCormack says: "I'm super excited to be working with the incredible team at Balloon to bring my hometown of Glasgow to life on the BBC and show off a city as dynamic, gritty and humorous as the characters we’ve created."

Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning for BBC Scotland, says: “Bryan and Gillian have created a fast-paced ensemble drama that will showcase Scotland to the UK and beyond in a new style as we delve in to the glossy, high-octane world of Glasgow lawyers. We’re delighted to see this new creative partnership of Scottish writers flourish and we hope audiences will enjoy the gripping dramatic cases and the tricky toxic relationships the characters have to face as they battle the system from within.”

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama says: “Bryan and Gillian have immersed themselves in the Glasgow legal scene to create this new world of brilliant young lawyers whose personal dramas outside of the courtroom are just as big as what happens inside it. Counsels is the legal drama reinvented for today, mixing brilliantly drawn characters with edge-of-your-seat stories that we know will keep BBC viewers hooked.”

Counsels (8x60’) was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, and Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning for BBC Scotland.