The Trial is a 2025 single-episode British television drama directed by Michael Samuels from a screenplay by Mark Burt. Produced by Adorable Media, an 100% independent production company based in London, it was broadcast on Channel 5 on 8 May 2025. Starring Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Ben Miles and Claire Skinner, it is set in the near-future in Great Britain in which parents are legally liable for the crimes committed by their children.
The drama is set in Britain in 2035 in which parents are held legally responsible for the crimes committed by their children. The drama shows teenager Teah on trial for a serious crime, putting her parents Dione and David Sinclair in the centre of a distressing legal battle against the Office of Judicial Inquisition, a powerful new division of the Ministry of Justice.
A one-off sixty minute television drama, The Trial is produced by Adorable Media (The Amazing Mr Blunden, Woman of Stone, The Mezzotint) by Richelle Wilder and Isibéal Ballance. The director is Michael Samuels from a screenplay by Mark Burt. It was announced by Channel 5 in March 2025, as part of a new policy by the channel to commission one-off television dramas.
The cast is led by Saoirse-Monica Jackson as an investigator of parents played by Ben Miles and Claire Skinner, with Jaz Hutchins and India Fowler also members of the cast.
The Trial aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 5 on 8 May 2025.