Stage Play 'Nuclear Children' Heads to Television as Six-Part Comedy Series
A six-part comedy series adapted from Ezra England's stage play Nuclear Children is in development at Finite Films & TV, the production company announced at the Edinburgh Television Festival on 26 August 2026 Deadline.
Finite Films & TV is co-developing the project with Platform Presents, the theatre company that co-produced the original stage production and whose playwriting prize the script won back in 2021. England is both the writer and performer of the play, which beat out 734 submissions to take the Platform Presents Playwriting Prize before running at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Deadline.
The series follows 18-year-old Isla Sparrow. After her father dies in a submarine accident, Isla hopes to flee her tiny hometown for university — but she fails her exams and finds herself stuck exactly where she is. The premise folds grief and small-town claustrophobia into a comic frame, drawing on material England has already tested in front of live Fringe audiences.
England is not only a playwright. As an actor, credits include Star Wars: Andor, the Disney+ series Extraordinary, and ITV's Unforgotten. He was a resident artist at London's Roundhouse venue from 2024 to 2025 Deadline.
Behind the camera, the production team brings a mix of television and film experience. Finite Films & TV is led by Ben McGrath, formerly of ITV and Three Rivers Media. McGrath's executive producer credits include Dead and Buried for BBC1 Northern Ireland and Virgin Media Television, and he identified the intellectual property and executive story-produced an adaptation of Deon Meyer's novel Trackers for HBO, ZDF and M-Net. He also co-created the British-Nordic crime thriller Reyna with Torfinnur Jákupsson Deadline.
Finite Films & TV founder Amy Gardner worked on the stage productions of Nuclear Children and The Joy of Text. Her producing credits span theatre and film: And Then Come the Nightjars, Honeytrap, La Bohème and My House. As an executive producer, her name is attached to Felipe Gálvez Haberle's The Settlers, Joshua Oppenheimer's The End, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor's Dreamers, Konstantina Kotzamani's Titanic Ocean and Ruthy Pribar's What is to Come Deadline.
The series does not yet have a broadcaster or streaming home. Finite Films & TV plans to shop Nuclear Children to buyers at the Edinburgh Television Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, the two industry events that run side by side in the Scottish capital each August. A deal has not been announced.
For audiences, that means a timetable is not yet fixed — the project is at the development stage, meaning the script is being shaped for television but no production start date has been set. What is certain is that a play which began as one of 734 entries in a playwriting competition, then played to Fringe crowds, now has a path to screens.
