Showtime has set a Sunday, April 16 at 9 PM ET/PT premiere for “Guerrilla,” a six-part limited event series which will also premiere in the UK on the Sky network during the same week.

Babou Ceesay and Freida Pinto star in the highly anticipated British drama that hails from creator John Ridley (“American Crime,” “12 Years a Slave”), with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures executive producing.




Elba also co-stars in “Guerrilla”, a love story set against the backdrop of one of the most politically explosive times in UK history. It tells the story of Marcus (Ceesay) and Jas (Pinto) whose relationship and values are tested when they liberate a political prisoner and form a radical underground cell in 1970s London. Their ultimate target becomes the Black Power Desk, a true-life, secretive counter-intelligence unit within a Special Branch dedicated to crushing all forms of black activism.

The series also stars names of other black British stars you’ll be familiar with: Zawe Ashton, Nicholas Pinnock, Wunmi Mosaku, and Nathaniel Martello-White, as well as African American actor Brandon Scott, plus Rory Kinnear, Daniel Mays, and Denise Gough round out the key cast.

Academy Award winner John Ridley wrote the majority of the series with British writer Misan Sagay writing episode five; Ridley also directs half of the series together with British director Sam Miller.

Commissioned for Sky by Head of Drama Anne Mensah and Director of Sky Atlantic Zai Bennett, the series is a co-production between Fifty Fathoms and ABC Signature. Alongside John Ridley through his company International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation, the executive producers are Idris Elba for Green Door Pictures, Patrick Spence and Katie Swinden for Fifty Fathoms (Fortitude, Marvellous), Tracy Underwood for ABC Signature, and Michael McDonald for Stearns Castle.

Above is an official first-look image from the upcoming series produced by Endemol Shine International, featuring stars Pinto and Ceesay. Click to enlarge. And below, a first trailer has been released so check it out.