Hot Picks: Army of Shadows

This intriguing series comes from Ronan Bennett, the man behind The Day Of The Jackal and Top Boy, and was inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969 film Army Of Shadows and Joseph Kessel’s writings from the French Resistance during the Second World War.

The resultant series – from StudioCanal Television in co-production with Two Cities Television – looks set to follow in the footsteps of Bennett’s other projects, posing soul-searching questions for the viewer but delivered with rich production values and gloss.

The show came about as a result of Bennett’s admiration of Melville’s film, which forms part of the StudioCanal library. It was initially developed in its original 1940s setting with Canal+ as commissioner, says Paul Gilbert, the French giant’s senior vice-president of English-language series.

Bennett reimagined the story in a near-future Britain, with the show then “suddenly taking on a new urgency and vitality”, Gilbert says. “That contemporary lens unlocked the emotional and thematic potential of the material in a fresh way, while staying true to the spirit of the original.”

The story follows an ex-soldier who thought his fighting days were over. But as Britain enters a new era of control under a de facto American occupation, he’s drawn into a fragile group of resistance with a charismatic student novelist and a young radiotherapist.

Following the creative shift, Channel 4 came on board as the UK anchor broadcaster, alongside Canal+ as co-commissioner, and the series was subsequently greenlit. Gilbert describes Kessel’s novel and Melville’s film as “fundamental reference points”, but they are being used as inspiration rather than a blueprint. “What Ronan has taken from the book is its point of view – that immersive sense of living inside a resistance, with all the caution, paranoia and moral weight that comes with it.”

He adds: “From the film, it’s the character dynamics and the central conceit that are so compelling and hooky: the idea of a small group bound by trust, secrecy and impossible choices, where leadership, loyalty and betrayal are constantly in tension. Those dynamics are timeless, and translate powerfully to television.”

Shooting starts in May, with locations mapped out in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Paris, and StudioCanal is taking the series to global buyers (Canal+ has rights in 50 countries across its footprint in Europe, Asia and Africa).

Gilbert says what sets Bennett’s vision apart from other thrillers on the market is that Army Of Shadows tells the story “from the inside out”. Rather than leading with ideology or conspiracy, the show is anchored in character, he continues, “ordinary people navigating small, irreversible choices as the world around them tightens. The tension doesn’t come from twists alone, but from watching people realise that neutrality is no longer possible, and that every action carries personal consequences.”

At six episodes, it is tightly focused, returnable and designed to travel, “not because of scale alone, but because its themes are universal: fear, loyalty, love and the cost of choosing to act”.

The series is designed to be watchable and gripping but also to linger, the StudioCanal exec adds, because the audience recognises themselves in the characters and in the central question that the show keeps asking: what would I do in their place?