Utopia

Utopia is a six-part British conspiracy thriller that debuted on Channel 4 on 15 January 2013.^[2][3] The show is written by Dennis Kelly and stars Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford and Neil Maskell.

Filming location

Utopia is set in London, but was filmed mostly in Liverpool between April and October 2012, while the panning shot of the Mercury Hotel in episode 1 was filmed in Westhoughton. Producer Bekki Wray-Rogers claimed the reason for this was that no other city in the UK could have provided them with as much of a variety of locations.Some scenes were filmed at Scarisbrick Hall in Ormskirk. Scenes for the school shooting in episode 3 were filmed at Alsop High School in Walton whilst the school was closed for summer in July 2012. The empty red sandstone stately home the group make use of from episode 4 is filmed at Woolton Hall. The cafe scene in episode 5 is filmed at TC's Cafe & Take-Away on Southport New Road. Many scenes were filmed in Crosby.

Controversy

UK media regulator Ofcom received 44 complaints about the television series including complaints about violence, offensive language and child actors being involved in scenes of adult content. Thirty seven of the complaints related to a scene at the beginning of the third episode where a shooting takes place in a primary school. Channel 4 also received 28 complaints about the scene. It was aired a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. A spokesman for Channel 4 responded, "Channel 4 thought very carefully about continuing with the planned broadcast of Utopia. The drama is in no way based on real events, and the scenes featuring violence are editorially justified within the context of the storyline. All material has been carefully considered in accordance with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and we were satisfied that, appropriately scheduled in a late night slot at 10pm and preceded by clear on-air warnings about the graphic violence and very strong language, it could be broadcast as planned."