Eclipse airs 26th August

Eclipse - Richard T Kelly's short story - is scheduled for transmission on Thursday 26th August 2010 on Channel 4 and Channel 4HD.

Part of the Channel 4 "Coming Up" series, Eclipse (formerly entitled Jennifer and prior to that The Home Secretary) stars Andrew Buchan as Ben and Zoë playing the multiple parts of Chloe, Jennifer and "woman".

Eclipse is broadcast on Channel 4 (and Channel 4 HD) on Thursday 26th August 2010 at 23:40 and is repeated on Channel 4+1 on Friday 27th August at 12:40. The programme will also be available on Channel 4's "On Demand" service.

The programme description says:

Ben, played by Andrew Buchan, is captivated by his flighty friend and neighbour Chloe, played by Zoë Tapper, who toys endlessly with his affections, until a chance encounter with her doppelganger, Jennifer, changes the dynamic of their relationship forever.

In Richard's blog, he gives an insight into what his creative influences were and how he came to write the fictional half hour story:

At that London screening Michael Lennox, who directed Eclipse, mentioned that it wasn’t the sort of script he would ordinarily do. Nor was it the sort of script I’d normally write. I think both of us in our own ways have tended thus far to ‘do’ realism, whereas Jennifer/Eclipse was intended unabashedly as a fable based on an outright impossibility.

The project was a highly novel challenge-opportunity, really, in that Michael and I were paired for work before a script was in place. The scenario I initially submitted, entitled The Home Secretary (probably self-explanatory...), ended up looking too dramatically and logistically cumbersome for the half-hour slot. So I quickly wrote up three alternative scenarios, and Jennifer, as it was then, was the one Michael plumped for. The other two were more down-at-heel/'real' in milieu and subject, but then it seemed a solid choice to try out something about sexuality, attraction, physical allurement, albeit rather dark in tone and outcome.

The Channel 4 Coming Up episode guide for this series is here.