Southcliffe is a British drama series that aired on Channel 4. Set in a fictional town on the North Kent Marshes, it employs a nonlinear narrative structure to tell the story of a series of shootings by a local man portrayed by Sean Harris, the cause of the shootings and the effects on the town and residents. The series explores tragedy, grief, responsibility and redemption as seen through the eyes of a journalist returning to the small town of his childhood to cover the story.^[2]

The series was filmed in Faversham in North Kent^[3] and was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.^[4][5]

• Rory Kinnear – David Whitehead
• Sean Harris – Stephen Morton
• Shirley Henderson – Claire Salter
• Anatol Yusef – Paul Gould
• Eddie Marsan – Andrew Salter
• Joe Dempsie – Chris Cooper
• Nichola Burley - Sarah Gould
• Geoff Bell – Alan
• Coral Amiga - Mattie
• Kaya Scodelario – Anna Salter^[6]

In August 2012, Channel 4 announced that they had ordered a four-part drama series titled Southcliffe. The drama was written by Tony Grisoni and produced by Warp Films, with Peter Carlton and Sophie Gardiner serving as executive producers, and Sean Durkin as director.^[7]

The critical response to the first two episodes was mostly positive. Benji Wilson of The Daily Telegraph thought that with "its muted palette, protracted silences, dank fogs and seething unease, Southcliffe was anything but nice-cup-of-tea and a sit-down TV, but it was a mesmerising tragedy, nonetheless."^[12] Arifa Akbar of The Independent noted "its disturbing silences" and called it "a rare and brilliant Sunday-night viewing",^[13] while Paul Whitelaw of The Scotsman considered Southcliffe to be "a major work, and quite easily the best British TV drama of the year so far."^[14] The sentiment was shared by Euan Ferguson of The Observer, who called it "the TV event of the year."^[15] Sam Wollaston of The Guardian thought that the drama series was a masterly study of a tragedy in smalltown England, one that "felt – and looked, and sounded – so utterly and terribly real", and that it was a "profound, chilling, moving piece of television".^[16]

Serena Davies of The Daily Telegraph, however, voiced a contrary opinion and wondered if the level of violence in this show as well as other TV dramas was really necessary.^[17]

The drama series received the most nominations at the 2014 British Academy Television Awards together with The IT Crowd, with four nominations each.^[20]

• Cumbria shootings
• Dunblane school massacre
• Hungerford massacre
• Monkseaton shootings