Stolen youth

Mary-Louise Parker, Joe Freeman and Ben Barnes star in Stephen King's tale of a sinister facility for children

- Ms Sigsby, Luke and Tim

The Institute NEW Genre: Sci-fi Season: 1 Episodes: 8 Available: Sunday 13 July (first two eps from Sunday 13 July, then weekly)

With supernatural themes, sinister secrets and a brave band of kids fighting dark forces, new sci-fi horror The Institute is the perfect summer series for anyone who likes Stranger Things.

Adapted from Stephen King’s 2019 novel, the spine-chilling eight-part series follows Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman, the son of actors Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington), a 14-year-old telekinetic genius who is abducted from his bedroom in Minneapolis and brought to a secret, heavily guarded compound called The Institute.

But Luke quickly uncovers a cruel reality: The Institute is a prison for children like him with unusual abilities, such as telepathy, and the kids are being subjected to twisted experiments orchestrated by the cold and calculated Ms Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker).