The words “explosion of violence” are in the official description for Half Man, creator and star Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer. The trailer for the HBO limited series doesn’t depict it, but it feels like the act hangs over every piece of it.
Half Man stars Gadd and Jamie Bell as Niall and Ruben, who have been brothers in all but DNA since they were kids. When Niall shows up at Ruben’s wedding 30 years later, “everything seems different,” the show’s description reads. “He is on edge. Shifty. Not acting like himself. And soon, an explosion of violence takes place which catapults us back through their lives, from the eighties to the present day. Capturing 30 years in the lives of these broken men, Half Man is a six-part limited series exploring brotherhood, violence, and the intense fragility of male relationships. After all, when things fall apart, it is sometimes the closest relationships which break the hardest.”
Watch the trailer below.
The six-episode series is set to premiere April 23 on HBO and HBO Max and April 24 on BBC iPlayer in the U.K., with over-the-air broadcasts on the BBC later that week.
The Half Man cast also includes Stuart Campbell, Mitchell Robertson, Neve McIntosh, Marianne McIvor, Charlie De Melo, Bilal Hasna, Julie Cullen, Amy Manson, Anjli Mohindra, Tim Downie, Tom Andrews, Philippine Velge, Stuart McQuarrie, Sandy Batchelor, Piers Ewart, Scot Greenan, and newcomers Charlotte Blackwood, Calum Manchip and Kate Robson-Stuart.
Banijay UK’s Mam Tor Productions is behind Half Man, in association with Thistledown Pictures, for HBO, BBC iPlayer, BBC One, and BBC Scotland. Gadd is the creator and writer and executive produces with Sophie Gardiner, Anna O’Malley, Gaynor Holmes for the BBC, Gavin Smith for BBC Scotland, and Tally Garner and Morven Reid of Mam Tor Productions. Alexandra Brodski and Eshref Reybrouck directed.
