Sky has announced details of a new eight-part sci-fi drama, The Midwich Cuckoos, based on the John Wyndham novel of the same name.
The show is set in the small fictional English commuter town of Midwich where, one summer's day, every resident suddenly passes out - and when they come to, it emerges that every woman of child-bearing age has fallen pregnant.
After the women give birth, it starts to become clear that the town's new influx of children may have arrived with a malevolent purpose.
Line of Duty's Keeley Hawes will play Midwich's psychotherapist, who tries to help people cope with the effects of the mysterious event, while Max Beesley stars as the local officer charged with keeping law and order.
"I first read The Midwich Cuckoos when I was twelve," said writer David Farr. "I was living in a small town in 1980s Britain. Everything about the book rang true to me and terrified me.
"An invasion of a small community by a hostile and ruthless force. Apparently innocent children as a force of huge malevolent power. It got under my skin.
"As I've grown older, the story has never ceased to exert a grip. The idea that we may birth our own destruction is so simple and frightening.
"That as a mother or a father, the being we love most in the world may turn on us. It's the stuff of nightmares."
The show begins filming in London next month and will be broadcast on Sky One in 2022.
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