Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd is back, this time for his new hotly anticipated BBC six-part drama Half Man.
Richard Gadd is the creator and executive producer of Half Man, though starring in the BBC drama was not part of his original plan.
After unexpectedly finding themselves living under the same roof, Ruben (Stuart Campbell) and Niall (Mitchell Robertson) develop a brotherly bond — one fierce and fiercely loyal, the other timid and gentle-natured.
Across six episodes, Half Man traces the pair’s lives over three decades, right up to Niall’s (Jamie Bell) wedding day, when the volatile Ruben (Richard Gadd) brings chaos in his wake.
While Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd both created and executive produced the new BBC series, he had no initial intention of playing Ruben — it took some persuasion from Billy Elliot legend Jamie Bell to convince him to take on the uncompromising role.
Speaking at a BBC Q&A, Gadd revealed: “I wasn’t going to do it to begin with.
“I wasn’t going to do Ruben, because acting in something and directing and doing everything else is a lot.
“You have to see a show from the inside and the outside which is actually the main pressure of the role.
“So I wasn’t going to do it, I didn’t want to do it. Baby Reindeer was out and that’d take one thing off my plate.
“But Jamie [Bell] was the first to suggest it. He was like ‘have you ever thought about doing this?’
“And it sort of terrified me in a way. I was like ‘Wow. That’s real far.’
“But I often feel that what scares you in life, you should probably do it.”
While Gadd’s co-star Jamie Bell rose to prominence as Billy Elliot in the legendary 2000 film, he is poised to undertake another memorable role.
Bell will be entering the Peaky Blinders universe in the forthcoming two-season sequel as Duke Shelby, Tommy Shelby’s (Cillian Murphy) son, set in the 1950s.
The character of Duke was initially played by Saltburn star Barry Keoghan in the Netflix film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Half Man premieres on Tuesday, April 28, at 10.40pm on BBC One.
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