Channel 4, Netflix team for drama

UK broadcaster Channel 4 and US-based Netflix are joining forces on Kiss Me First, a new youth-skewed drama series.

The show will debut on Channel 4’s youth-focused channel E4, and go out on Netflix’s streaming services outside the UK.

A mix of live-action, animation, and CGI, the series is an adaptation of the Lottie Moggach novel of the same name.

It follows a lonely 17 year-old who is addicted to an online game called Agora and gets drawn into a mystery about a missing girl. Skins writer Bryan Elsey has written the series and Balloon and Kindle Entertainment are on production duty.

Larry Tanz, vice president global television at Netflix, said: “Kiss Me First is a show with global themes and resonance, and we are proud to launch the show simultaneously across the entire world, exclusively on Netflix immediately after its broadcast in the UK.”

Piers Wenger, Channel 4’s head of drama, said; “This is a thrilling and truly ground-breaking series which takes an emotional look at the lives of a group of young gamers and the truth which exists behind their online life.”