Red Rose: BBC Three release date, trailer, and cast of horror series with Amelia Clarkson and Isis Hainsworth

Red Rose, a new horror drama for the smartphone era, began on BBC Three and iPlayer on Monday 15 August.

The series, which is eight episodes total, stars Amelia Clarkson and Isis Hainsworth as two school friends, haunted by a strange phone app in the summer after their GCSEs.

Here’s everything you need to know about Red Rose.

What is Red Rose about?

Red Rose follows a group of school friends in the long summer between GCSE exams and GCSE results. At a loose end, one of the group downloads an app called Red Rose – one that starts to issue increasingly strange demands of the friends.

What started as seemingly innocent dares escalates further and further, becoming more and more dangerous until it appears that Red Rose isn’t just a string of code, but something much darker – perhaps even something supernatural…

Who stars in Red Rose?

Amelia Clarkson plays Wren, the main character. You’ll likely know Clarkson from Poldark, where she played Rosina, or from The Last Kingdom, where she played Aelflaed. As a child actor, she appeared in Jane Eyre (2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Harry Redding plays Noah, who Wren has a crush on (and Rochelle is jealous of). Redding makes his first screen appearance in Red Rose.

Isis Hainsworth plays Rochelle, who downloads Red Rose to her phone. Hainsworth has appeared in the Netflix film Metal Lords, the BBC Four series of monologues Skint, and the Jane Austen adaptation Emma. She can next be seen in Lena Dunham’s film Catherine Called Birdy.

They’re joined by Samuel Anderson (Doctor Who), Ashna Rabheru (Sex Education), Natalie Gavin (Ackley Bridge), Adam Nagaitis (The Terror), and Ali Khan (Halo) amongst others.

Who writes and directs Red Rose?

The series was written by Michael and Paul Clarkson, who are themselves from Bolton where Red Rose is set. Interestingly, they’re also twins.

The Clarksons, only in their early 30s, have previously worked together on the Netflix horror series The Haunting of Bly Manor, the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama See, and Amazon’s Game of Thrones equivalent The Wheel of Time.

Lisa Siwe (The Bridge), Henry Blake (County Lines), and Ramón Salazar (Elite) are each credited with directing episodes of Red Rose.

Is there a trailer?

There’s a brief teaser, which you can watch here.

When and how can I watch Red Rose?

All eight episodes of Red Rose will be available to watch as a boxset on BBC iPlayer from Monday 15 August.

The series will air on BBC Three on normal television on Monday evenings, with a BBC One repeat planned in the coming months.

Red Rose is a Netflix co-production, meaning it’ll be available on the streaming service later this year. It seems like the sort of show that’ll prove popular on Netflix, so you might want to watch it now to get ahead of the curve.

How many episodes is Red Rose?

There are eight episodes to Red Rose’s first series, each around 45 minutes long.

Where is Red Rose set?

Red Rose is set and was filmed in Bolton.

Why should I watch Red Rose?

It’s one to watch if you like your teen drama with a bit of a horror bent – if you previously enjoyed things like the film Nerve, the Black Mirror episode Shut Up and Dance, or the Escape Room movies, this one might well be to your liking too.

Alternately, it might be one to check out if you like the Netflix series Elite – given this shares a director with the Spanish hit – or indeed any show about teens in increasingly dangerous situations.