This Is England director Shane Meadows creates Irish drama The Virtues for Channel 4

Shane Meadows is reuniting with actor Stephen Graham on a major new drama

This Is England film-maker Shane Meadows has reunited with actor Stephen Graham for a new drama series.

Graham will play Joseph, a 'moral yet troubled man' who has lost everything and travels to Ireland to confront his demons.

A childhood spent in the care system continues to haunt him in the Channel 4 drama, The Virtues, described as an 'unlikely love story'.

Shane said: “The Virtues reunites me with the peerless Stephen Graham, whilst also allowing me the chance to work with a host of supremely gifted actors and some incredible new talent.”

He said the drama would combine 'Biblical, almost apocalyptic levels of revenge… with the bittersweet humour from This Is England' to create 'a landscape like nothing else I’ve ever worked on'.

Beth Willis, head of drama at Channel 4, said: “This tender love story is complex and at times dark, but always shot through with heart and a large dose of humour.”

Shot in location in Sheffield, Liverpool and Belfast, the drama has been written by Shane and National Treasure writer Jack Thorne and also stars newcomer Niamh Algar and Helen Behan.

The Virtues (working title) will screen in 2019.