Channel 4 The Gathering stars enjoy special homecoming at city premiere

A host of up-and-coming young actors were in the city last night for the premiere of a new TV series set on Merseyside.

The first episode of six-part thriller The Gathering will be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight, May 14, at 9pm. The drama centres around an attack on a teenage girl during a rave on a small island. It follows a group of teens who could have committed the crime, along with their parents, who each give a cause for suspicion.

Each episode is told from a different character's point of view, and according to the series producer, there are "a lot of surprises along the way".

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The drama stars newcomer Eva Morgan as working-class student Kelly, the victim of the attack. Sadie Soverall, who rose to fame in the film Saltburn, plays Jessica, Kelly's friend and elite gymnastics teammate, who seemingly has it all. Vinette Robinson from Boiling Point plays Jessica’s controlling and toxic mum Natalie, and The Responder's Warren Brown is Kelly’s hard-working dad Paul who struggles with impulse control.

Last night, the ECHO caught up with some of the stars and makers of the show to get the inside scoop on the series, which was filmed on Merseyside.

Talking to the ECHO, 21-year-old Eva Morgan, who hails from north Liverpool, described landing the central role of Kelly as a "massive blessing". Eva was still studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London when the news came though she had been selected to join the series.

She said: "I got the role last year a few months before filming. I was still in drama school at the time and I had never encountered professional auditions before, so it was a massive blessing when it came about.

"I love Kelly as a character. At her core she's a really beautiful person. She has her faults as we all do but I really admire her. I think she's a force. She's outspoken and bold."

Eva was thrilled to be part of a series set in her home city. She said: "For it to be set in Liverpool made it really special. It was great filming on Merseyside because a lot of the locations we were filming in were so familiar to me and to a lot of the other cast members."

She added: "I think for local audiences it'll be really beautiful to see those familiar places. For international audiences, people might not be so familiar with Merseyside, but cinematically it's amplified in a gorgeous way on screen.

Eva's co-star, Sonny Walker, who is also a model and welterweight boxer, said shooting the series on Merseyside was "amazing". He said: "It's my hometown, where I'm from, where I grew up. It's just great to film at all of the different locations in Liverpool and see all these familiar places and ultimately tell stories at these locations using these memorable backdrops."

Sonny, who played Stevo Marsh in BBC series The Responder, plays Adam, who he describes as "an urban free-runner and an aspiring DJ". He added: "Adam is one of Kelly's close friends - he grew up with Kelly and had quite a difficult upbringing."

Viewers will be able to identify a number of locations across Merseyside when they watch the show. The crucial rave attack happens on Hilbre Island, across the River Dee from the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

Liverpool's Princes Docks are shown as a popular hangout for the teenagers, while scenes were also shot at the Gino D'Campo Sky Bar 360 and at the INNSiDE Hotel on Liverpool's Old Hall Street.

Some filming took place on the Wirral, where Helen Walsh, who wrote and created the series, lives.

According to series executive producer Laura Cotton, who has been working on the project for the past four years, "it was really important to Helen that it was location specific - she wrote the locations into the script, and we pretty much filmed the ones she had in her head."

As many film and television producers have discovered over the years, few areas can rival Merseyside for its variety of landscapes and cinematic appeal. Laura said: "It was fantastic to film on Merseyside. There was a real range of locations we needed - from being in L8 and the rooftops of the city centre, to the beaches and the more expansive settings in the Wirral."

She added: "It's important there's that regional voice and it's rooted in reality and grounded in realism. There's a saying that 'the local is global' - and if you can get the local feeling right, then it'll feel universal."

For Laura, location was also key to helping producers express the themes of the series. She said: "Showing affluent areas alongside the less privileged areas was really important to our storytelling. That was where the class divides happen and they are explored in the drama.

"Thematically the series explores parenting, and the parenting of teenagers in particular. These days there's surveillance parenting, where you can tell where your children are all the time on apps like 360.

"And it poses that question: is it better to know where your children are and to be optimising their potential or is it better to let kids run free and make their own mistakes and learn that way?"

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