Shane Meadows, the director of This is England, ’86, ’88, ’90 and Boardwalk Empire, writer Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (the crazed white supremacist Andrew ‘Combo’ Gascoigne in TiE) are teaming up once more for a new drama titled The Virtues.

The four-part television series, set to air on Channel 4, will see Graham take on the role of Joseph – a “moral yet troubled man” who has lost everything, who returns to Ireland to confront his demons and a past life in the country’s failing care system. He crosses path with Dinah (Niamh Algar, of Without Name) who has her own guarded past and secrets. Helen Behan (This is England ’88 and ’90) plays Joseph’s sister; they haven’t seen each other since their childhood.

A press statement describes the drama: “At once an unlikely love story between two people cast adrift in life and an exploration of the conflict between sin and virtue, The Virtues is a visceral and beautiful paean to the human spirit.”

The Virtues is written by both Meadows and Thorne, directed by Meadows and produced by Mark Herbert and Nickie Sault, also of the This is England franchise.

Shane Meadows said of the upcoming show: “The Virtues reunites me with the peerless Stephen Graham, whilst also allowing me the chance to work with a host of supremely gifted actors and some incredible new talent. It takes the biblical, almost apocalyptic levels of revenge witnessed in Dead Man’s Shoes, along with the bittersweet humour from This is England and creates a landscape like nothing else I've ever worked on.”

They’re currently filming across Sheffield, Liverpool and Belfast, and it’s thought the four-part series will air on Channel 4 in 2019.