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Paramount+ is preparing to air a fascinating six-part psychological drama called “Little Disasters,” based on Sarah Vaughan’s bestselling novel. Diane Kruger leads a star-studded cast in the series, which looks at the fragile relationships of friendship and the enormous pressures of parenting.

The story revolves around Jess, played by Kruger, a mother whose life spirals after her baby suffers a strange head injury. Her best friend Liz, an emergency room doctor, faces a difficult professional decision: whether to report Jess to social services. This watershed moment sparks a dramatic exploration of trust, devotion, and the hidden struggles of parenthood.

Director Eva Sigurdardottir described Kruger’s performance as “intelligent and dynamic.” She said that Kruger contributed “unexpected depth” to the character, creating a “warmly relatable and hauntingly thrilling representation.”

The drama features a strong ensemble cast, including Stephen Campbell Moore, Jo Joyner, Shelley Conn, Emily Taaffe, JJ Feild, and Ben Bailey Smith.

Exclusive: Here are a couple of exclusive images of Inglourious Basterds star Diane Kruger in buzzy Paramount+ series Little Disasters.

Cannes Award-winning actor Kruger plays Jess in the adaptation of the Sarah Vaughan novel. When she takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury that she can’t explain, her close friend and on-duty A&e doctor Liz must make the excruciating decision of whether to call social services on her longtime friend. This decision sets in motion a chain of events that show how one moment can fracture and nearly destroy entire families and friendships. The show also stars Jo Joyner, Patrick Baladi (Ted Lasso), Shelley Conn, Emily Taaffe, JJ Feild, Ben Bailey Smith and Stephen Campbell Moore.

Diane Kruger and JJ Field in Little Disasters. Image: Roughcut / Paramount Global / Kristóf Galgóczi Németh

Kruger has had far more movie roles than TV but she did play Detective Sonya Cross in FX’s version of The Bridge last decade. The German actor, who broke out in 2004’s epic war film Troy, was described as an “intelligent and dynamic actress, whose sheer presence brings with it a unique quality that leaves you inspired” by Little Disasters director Eva Sigurdardottir.

“Attaching Diane allowed me to explore sides of Jess’ character in deeper ways than I had anticipated,” she added. “Little Disasters is a story of a warm and loving mother who is hiding a dark secret, and Diane navigated that character so elegantly, with relatable and warm performances, as well as truly haunting and thrilling moments.”

That relatability attracted Sigurdardottir to Little Disasters, she told us, along with a “tension and thriller engine rooted in very relatable and familiar domestic settings.”

“I am a filmmaker who is drawn to brutally real and gritty stories, and here we had a glamorous and aspirational setting, yet with a terrifying central conflict – a hurt child,” she added.

Marianna Abbotts is exec producing for Big Boys producer Roughcut TV, which has recently moved into drama. She said she “fell in love with” Vaughan’s novels after reading Anatomy of a Scandal. “Sarah often writes about professional women who are forced to make impossible decisions. At the heart of Little Disasters is a really difficult moral dilemma when one friend is forced to call social services on another,” she added.

To aid with tackling these sensitive topics, the Roughcut team worked closely with Vaughan along with multiple advisors. “We wanted to portray the issues in the book accurately and it was extremely important to get that right,” said Abbotts. “We consulted medical, police and social service advisers who guided us with accuracy and sensitivity while understanding the need to tell a dramatic story.”

Little Disasters is a six-part series for Paramount+ UK and Ireland. Ruth Fowler and Amanda Duke adapted the series for the screen with Roughcut Television EPs Ash Atalla, Alex Smith and Abbotts on board alongside Vaughan. Simon Judd EPs for Fremantle, Sigurdardottir is the director and Myf Hopkins serves as the producer. The series was commissioned by Sebastian Cardwell and Paul Testar and will premiere next year. Fremantle is handling global sales.

Diane Kruger and Jo Joyner will lead Paramount+ UK & Ireland’s latest drama series, Little Disasters.

The pair will play friends Jess and Liz in the “tense and compelling” six-part psychological thriller, which also stars Shelley Conn and Emily Taaffe. It is adapted from Anatomy of a Scandal writer Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name and billed as an exploration of female friendships and motherhood.

The four actresses play four friends who were thrown together while expectant mothers with little in common apart from their due dates. When Jess takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury she can’t explain, close friend and on-duty A&e doctor Liz is forced to make the excruciating decision as to whether to call social services on her friend. The decision sets...

BBC Drama has revealed eight new commissions from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and announced four new commissioning roles.

From Northern Ireland, six-part BBC One series “Blue Lights” is a police drama created by the writers of “The Salisbury Poisonings,” Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn. It follows probationary police officers working in contemporary Belfast, who have to come to terms with a constant threat. The series is executive produced by Tommy Bulfin for the BBC, Stephen Wright for Two Cities Television and Louise Gallagher for Gallagher Films, and by Lawn and Patterson.

Another BBC One six-parter, “Better,” is from from the writers of “Humans,” Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, and “Chernobyl” producer Sister. Set in Leeds in Northern England, the series follows a corrupt police detective who undergoes a painful moral awakening and decides to put right 20 years of wrongdoing, but satisfying her newfound conscience won’t be straightforward.