EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a positive news story in challenging times. Filming is underway on a charitable, filmed-from-home pilot starring Brian Cox (Succession), Claes Bang (The Square) and journalist-presenter Mariella Frostrup, among others.

UK producer Maggie Monteith (Swimming With Men) has enlisted an all-female, transatlantic team of writer-directors for whodunnit The Agoraphobics Detective Society, whose proceeds will go to UK and U.S. film and TV freelancers impacted by coronavirus.

The pilot for the eight-episode show will see a distraught group of patients band together to find a renowned expert psychiatrist who disappears without explanation.

Also among actors filming their parts digitally from home during the lockdown are Ian Harvie (Transparent), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits), Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Kelly + Victor), Grace Van Patten (The Meyerowitz Stories), Nicole Ansari-Cox (Remember Me), Simon Kunz (The Parent Trap) and Josephine Butler (Doctors).

The pilot will be available to view later this month at the Pinpoint Presents site and viewers will be asked to donate what they can afford to view. Funds will go to the UK’s Film And TV Charity and the Motion Picture & TV Fund in the U.S.

The writer-directors of the pilot comprise Dolly Wells (Doll and Em), Suzi Ewing (10×10) and Heidi Greensmith (Winter).

The Souvenir and Swimming with Men’s David Raedeker is undertaking cinematography duties, Connor Hamill is looking after camerawork and Anousha Payne and Ryan Thomas are providing production design. Denise Coombes and Karen Bertellotti are handling costume design and Mandi Anderson is providing make-up and hair consultation.

Adelina Bichis and Gideon Gold are editing, and post-production services are provided by Pat Wintersgill at Film Shed and Nick Baldock of Art4Noise. Walter Mair is composer and is due to shortly reveal collaborations with U.S. artists for the soundtrack.

Producer Monteith told us about the project she originated, “The logistics of filming where people are sheltering in place was the toughest logistics problem to solve outside the mystery of international time zones. A bespoke solution was found for each actor, according to their phones, laptops and computers. A combination of downloadable apps and enhancements, and help delivered in the form of props, wardrobe, hair and makeup products and tech items, made it possible to get usable takes.”