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Arts & Culture

Masterpiece Contemporary: Collision - Part 1

The investigation of a multi-vehicle road accident unravels the shocking secrets of the complete strangers involved, revealing government cover-ups, smuggling, embezzlement, and murder. A remarkable cast portrays the stories of 10 people who share a single defining moment. Pictured: Kate Ashfield as Ann Stallwood and Douglas Henshall as DI John Tolin.
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The investigation of a multi-vehicle road accident unravels the shocking secrets of the complete strangers involved, revealing government cover-ups, smuggling, embezzlement, and murder. A remarkable cast portrays the stories of 10 people who share a single defining moment. Pictured: Kate Ashfield as Ann Stallwood and Douglas Henshall as DI John Tolin.

Airs Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

Six cars collide on a superhighway outside London, leaving death, shattered lives, and profound mysteries. Why did some live and others die? Why did one driver disappear before rescuers got to him? And how will survivors, relatives, and others cope with a wrenching event that has unexpectedly far-reaching consequences?

Estranged lovers John Tolin and Ann Stallwood are the police officers called in to make sense of the mayhem, which unfolds as follows:

Sidney Norris, a piano teacher, inexplicably swerves, causing executive secretary Karen Donnelly to crash into him. Danny Rampton, an army vet driving a furniture van, skids into the two cars, leaving the ground and vaulting into the oncoming lanes. Young lovers Gareth Clay and Alice Jackson collide with the van while being pursued by police for speeding. Then a chauffeur-driven car carrying rich developer Richard Reeves plows into the first two cars, followed by store clerk Brian Edwards driving his mother-in-law, Joyce Thompson, who is grabbing at the wheel.

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Sidney and Alice are dead at the scene, Joyce is in a coma, Danny is missing, and others are injured, including Richard, who falls in love while he is being treated. Meanwhile, Karen is in the hospital and desperately needs documents stolen from work that she left in her car — papers that put her in more danger than the accident itself.

Watch a preview. "Collision" will be available for online viewing November 16 - December 22, 2009, Eastern Time.