Film producer Shane Meadows forced to watch premiere of new Sheffield filmed drama parked up in car in city side street

The producer’s new Channel 4 drama The Virtues was screened to widespread acclaim on Wednesday night – but rather than watching the new drama in the comfort of his own home or a preview cinema screening, he ended up watching it parked up in Broomhill because of accidents on the M1.

Sharing a clip of himself watching the show on a mobile phone from the front seat of his car, he tells the camera: “I’m a bit delayed, so I've had to pull over and I’m watching the premiere of The Virtues in the car.

“I didn’t want to miss the opening, as you didn’t, so pulled over. There’s been horrendous accidents on the M1 so we’ve pulled over in this leafy street.”

Co-producer Mark Herbert, who shared the clip on Twitter wrote: “This is how to watch. Probably the most relaxed screening me and @ShadyMeadows have ever experienced. #TheVirtues.”

The pair watched the drama, starring Stephen Graham, while parked up in Taptonville Road outside Broomhill Library, revealing that he’d had to stop listening to York indie band Shed Seven to tune in.

Mr Herbert later tweeted: “Overwhelmed by the response and feedback following #TheVirtues.”

The drama from Meadows, best known for the film This Is England and its follow up TV series, was partly filmed in Sheffield last year.

The show is described as a ‘powerful, bold drama that tackles themes of repressed memory, apocalyptic revenge and the hope of redemption’.

It follows Graham’s character, Joseph, as an alcoholic from Liverpool who spirals when his ex-partner and son move abroad.

In an interview in 2017, Meadows said: “The Virtues reunites me with the peerless Stephen Graham, while also allowing me the chance to work with a host of supremely gifted actors and some incredible new talent.

“It takes the biblical, almost apocalyptic levels of revenge witnessed in Dead Man’s Shoes, along with the bittersweet humour from This is England and creates a landscape like nothing else I’ve ever worked on.”

Beth Willis, head of drama at Channel 4, said: “We are so thrilled that the giant of a genius that is Shane Meadows has, with Mark Herbert, chosen Channel 4 to be the home of his next extraordinary story, world and unforgettable characters.”

Scenes for the series were also shot in Liverpool and Belfast.