Filming has started on E4/Netflix production The End of The F***ing World, a darkly comic road trip tale written by Charlie Covell and starring Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden.

Based on the award-winning series of comic books by Charles Forsman, The End of the F***king World invites viewers into the dark and confusing lives of teen outsiders James (Alex Lawther – Black Mirror, The Imitation Game) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden – The Lobster, Ellen, Penny Dreadful) as they embark on a road trip to find Alyssa’s father, who left home when she was a child.

James, 17, is pretty sure he’s a psychopath – emotionally detached, cold and disdainful, he’s decided he’s ready to graduate from killing animals. He thinks it might be interesting to kill something bigger…a human. And he’s got the perfect person in mind…

Alyssa, also 17, is new in school – cool and moody, she’s existential angst made flesh. But despite being popular at school, she still feels like she doesn’t belong. Spotting James one day at school, however, she thinks she may have found a soulmate…

When things come to a head at home between Alyssa, her mother and stepdad, she leaves and persuades James to join her in search of her real father. And so begins a journey of discovery that becomes progressively ominous as James’s urge to act on his sociopathic and violent inclinations increase while Alyssa, blinded by young love, remains wilfully ignorant of the consequences that lie at the end of the road. One night, however, the pair find themselves caught up in events that lead them down an ever more menacing and surreal path.

The eight-parter is produced by Clerkenwell Films and Dominic Buchanan Productions.

The series will air on E4 later this year and will be available on Netflix globally. Order the hardback book here.