Hayley Squires and Bel Powley have been cast in the lead roles of Shy & Lola, a new six-part darkly comic drama for BBC iPlayer and BBC One. The series, written by Amanda Coe (Apple Tree Yard, The Trial of Christine Keeler), follows two very different women forced into an unlikely alliance after a murder entangles them in the criminal underworld of a small coastal town in the North of England.
Squires, known for The Night Manager and I, Daniel Blake, plays Shy, a cleaner dreaming of a new life in Portugal. Powley, star of A Small Light and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, portrays Lola, an ex-model-turned-grifter who arrives in town with trouble at her heels. The duo begin as exploited novices but discover a talent for crime, building an operation that threatens local criminals. Their opposing futures—funding a fresh start or becoming the new bosses—drive the narrative.
Filming is set to begin this spring in and around Hull and Leeds. The series is produced by Clerkenwell Films (Baby Reindeer, The End of the F***ing World) and is based on the French drama Cheyenne and Lola. Amanda Coe expressed excitement about the “rich and spiky central relationship,” while executive producer Rachelle Constant praised the “bold series centred on a dynamic female duo.” BBC Director of Drama Lindsay Salt described the show as “the classic odd couple” caught up in a murder.
The 6 x 60-minute episodes will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One. Additional episodes are written by Emilie Robson and Alys Metcalf. Sam Donovan (Severance, Down Cemetery Road) serves as lead director, with Nadia Jaynes (The Responder) producing. Executive producers include Amanda Coe, Rachelle Constant, and Petra Fried, with Jo McClellan as BBC executive producer. BBC Studios will handle global sales.
