David Harewood Takes His First TV Lead Role as Pierre Begins Tonight on Channel 4

David Harewood takes his first leading role in a television series tonight as new Channel 4 drama Pierre begins at 9pm.

The six-part legal thriller places Harewood at the centre of the story as Pierre Jeffreys, a charismatic West London duty solicitor whose determination to help one young client leads him into an investigation of police corruption and institutional racism.

Channel 4 describes Pierre as charming, funny and highly effective at his job, while also struggling with money, relationships and the relentless pressures of representing people caught inside the criminal justice system.

What is Pierre about?

The story begins with what appears to be a fairly ordinary case.

Pierre is called to represent Michael, a young Black man who has been arrested after allegedly stealing his aunt’s car.

Michael believes his treatment by the police is part of a wider pattern and tells Pierre that he has repeatedly been targeted by the same officer.

What initially looks like another difficult shift for the solicitor becomes something much more serious when Michael later dies in suspicious circumstances.

Pierre refuses to accept the version of events being presented to him.

As he challenges the way Michael is portrayed and begins asking questions about what really happened, his investigation exposes a wider network of bigotry and institutional corruption.

Channel 4 says the drama asks what happens when somebody who normally works within the justice system decides to challenge the system itself.

A major career moment for David Harewood

The role is particularly significant for Harewood.

Despite a screen career stretching across almost four decades and major roles in productions including Homeland, Supergirl, Sherwood and The Night Manager, Pierre is his first time leading his own television drama series.

Harewood has described the wait as both a struggle and a frustration.

In an interview with Radio Times, he called Pierre the character he had been waiting his entire career to play, saying that roles offering Black actors this breadth simply were not available during the earlier stages of his career.

That breadth appears important to the series.

Pierre is not simply presented as a crusading lawyer investigating corruption. He is also a husband, friend, colleague and occasionally chaotic human being whose own life is far from perfectly organised.

Harewood says the character allowed him to show humour, charm, seriousness and vulnerability within the same role.

Who else is in the Pierre cast?

Michele Austin plays Charlotte Manners, Pierre’s joint managing partner at the law firm.

Jason Flemyng appears as DS Ronnie Miller, Pierre’s closest friend, creating an increasingly complicated relationship as Pierre’s investigation begins questioning the institution in which Ronnie works.

The wider cast includes Dean-Charles Chapman, Nikkita Chadha, Christopher Fairbank, Sara Powell and Cherrelle Skeete.

Newcomer Ezrae Maye plays Michael, the young client whose case becomes the catalyst for the wider story.

The series was filmed on location in West London, keeping Pierre’s professional and personal world rooted in the part of the city where he works.

Who created Pierre?

Pierre was co-written by BAFTA-winning playwright and screenwriter Roy Williams OBE and John Donnelly, whose previous television work includes Utopia.

For Williams, the series marks his first full television drama series.

The writers have described duty solicitors as some of the unsung figures of the legal profession: frequently overworked, underpaid and called out at any hour without knowing who will be waiting for them when they arrive.

Lead director Sarmad Masud previously worked on Boarders and You Don’t Know Me, while Jo Johnson, whose credits include Adolescence, produces the series.

When is Pierre on Channel 4?

Pierre begins tonight, Monday 5 October, at 9pm on Channel 4.

The first episode runs for approximately an hour.

Viewers who do not want to wait weekly will also have another option. The complete six-episode series becomes available to stream after tonight’s first television broadcast.

For Harewood, the programme represents a milestone that has taken considerably longer to arrive than his body of work might suggest.

For viewers, Pierre begins with the familiar machinery of a British legal drama before asking a more uncomfortable question: what happens when the lawyer defending people from the system starts to believe that the system itself is the problem?