Show of the Week: Fifteen-Love

Fifteen-Love

Explore the dark under-belly of the competitive and high-pressure world of professional tennis in this 6 x 60-minute drama series from World Productions.

Written by Hania Elkington, Fifteen-Love follows the story of Justine Pearce, a teenage prodigy whose meteoric rise in the sport is cut short by a career-ending injury.

Five years later, Justine seems to have healed both physically and emotionally, until she makes a shocking allegation about her former coach, Glenn Lapthorn.

“Fifteen-Love explores many of the physical, psychological and social pressures young athletes experience, and reflects the incredible stories told by women in sport over the last few years. The remarkable honesty of athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Pam Shriver, amongst others, has meant that the harsh realities of being at the top of your game have never been clearer,” executive producer Jake Lushington tells TBI.

“When researching the show, we were struck by the huge number of athletes who have paid a high price for outstanding success in their fields. Talking to some of them, over the course of making the drama, has been revelatory.”

With Justine and Glenn both seeking glory at the grass court event of the year, their battle over the truth will force everyone to reconsider what they thought they knew about their past success.

The cast includes “a mix of well-known and brand new talent – playing a diverse and exciting ensemble of characters”, including Ella Lily Hyland, Aidan Turner, Anna Chancellor and Jessica Darrow.

With the series focused on serious issues within the tennis world, the sport itself plays a major role in the drama, which Lushington says is “ultimately still a love-letter to tennis, and champions the idea that it should be a game everyone is able to play.”

The show depicts both French clay court and British grass court grand slam events, which the exec says was a “huge undertaking from a production perspective” and involved both seeking out and building suitable courts and putting the cast through hours of tennis training to ensure the action looked realistic.

Lushington says that the series will be “a real treat for tennis fans,” while also offering an engaging story of “high stakes emotion and drama, but also humour and friendship and warmth.”

Producer: World Productions
Distributor: ITV Studios
Broadcaster: Amazon Prime Video (UK)
Logline: Bold new drama set behind the scenes of Grand Slam tennis, about a former tennis protege who makes an explosive allegation against her coach