EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA-nominated Rocks co-writer Theresa Ikoko is no longer attached to Channel 4 drama series Dance School, a show the network said she was co-creating two years ago.
Deadline is told that Ikoko is no longer involved with the project, although details were scant. Discovery of Witches scribe Lisa Holdsworth is now sole creator. Reps for Ikoko and the show declined comment.
The series was unveiled with fanfare almost two years ago to the day. Produced by Lost Boys and Fairies maker Duck Soup Films, it follows an eclectic group of dance students as they navigate the intense highs and lows of coming of age in today’s complex world. With shades of the Ikoko-penned Rocks although set in the north of England, Channel 4 said at the time that Dance School would “champion characters who have been meticulously workshopped and inspired by true stories.” Adjacent to the production was 10 industry training placements available to individuals with no previous broadcast TV experience.
Deadline is told the show is progressing but there has been a great deal of turnaround in Channel 4’s drama commissioning team since it was given the greenlight. Drama boss Caroline Hollick, the original commissioner, exited several months ago and her TV drama department was brought together with Film4 under one commissioning lead, Film 4 boss Ollie Madden, who is now getting to grips with small screen commissioning.
Ikoko is one of the UK’s brightest young writing stars. With Claire Wilson, she was BAFTA-nominated for 2019’s Rocks, which received critical acclaim and followed a teenage girl in London hiding the fact that her mother has left her and her brother behind with little money.
Since then, she has penned the BBC’s Grime Kids and is working on the same broadcaster’s Wahala, an adaptation of Nikki May’s debut. She is also a writer on Channel 4/HBO series Get Millie Black starring Tamara Lawrance. Her play, Girls, about three girls abducted by terrorists in northern Nigeria, won the Alfred Fagon Award given to the best new play by a Black British playwright of Caribbean or African descent
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