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Cape Town - The Girl from St Agnes, the first Showmax Original drama, broke an important record on its debut on the service on Thursday, 31 Janaury.
The number of unique viewers in the first 24 hours exceeded that of the previous record-holder, the Showmax Original comedy series Tali’s Wedding Diary.
In addition, the number of views was more than double that of the most popular Hollywood series on its debut.
Speaking about this, Candice Fangueiro, Head of Content for the Connected Video division of MultiChoice, which houses Showmax, said: “We’re over the moon. This shows without a shadow of a doubt that local content is a major differentiator, and it also shows that African productions can not only hold their own against the best in the world but they can actually come out on top.”
“We’d, of course, hoped that The Girl from St Agnes would get loads of views, but what we didn’t expect was how many people have already watched the entire series. That’s eight one-hour episodes in less than 24 hours – a serious testament to how binge-worthy the show is.”
In The Girl from St Agnes, a popular student is found dead at a prestigious all-girls boarding school in the Midlands. The police are quick to declare the death of Lexi Summerveld (newcomer Jane de Wet) a tragic accident, but drama teacher Kate Ballard (Nina Milner) doesn’t believe it. The more she investigates, the more Kate realises that she didn’t really know Lexi or the school at all. Behind the imposing walls of St Agnes, Lexi’s killer won’t be the only person exposed.
The series also stars Robert Hobbs (District 9), Tyrone Keogh (24 Hours To Live), Tessa Jubber (Wallander), Karl Thaning (Dredd) and Shamilla Miller (Troy: Fall Of A City) among others.
2018 SAFTA winner Catharine Cooke and 2017 SAFTA nominee Cindy Lee co-direct, with the multi-award-winning Quizzical Pictures producing.
