Channel 4 has commissioned Close to Home

Image: Ch4 Press

By Jon Donnis

Channel 4 has commissioned Close to Home, a four part drama produced by Element Pictures, a multi Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning company and part of Fremantle. The company is known for Normal People and Bugonia, and this new series promises a story grounded in Belfast, looking at youth, trauma and the lingering effects of history.

The series is adapted by Michael Magee from his debut novel, which won the 2023 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the 2024 Nero Prize for Debut Fiction. Direction is by Diarmuid Goggins, known for Code of Silence, giving the story a tense and immersive feel.

Anthony Boyle stars as Sean, a young man returning to Belfast after university. He falls back into old habits, late nights, borrowed money, missed rent, unreliable jobs, and living with his brother and mother, all while unspoken family tensions simmer. Jessica Reynolds plays Mairéad, Seamus O'Hara is Anthony, and Oisín Thompson is Ryan, completing a close knit circle of friends whose lives are intertwined with the city around them.

The story takes a dark turn when Sean assaults a stranger at a party, setting off a chain of events that upends friendships and family life. Close to Home is a story of love, recklessness and the struggle to find your place in a city still marked by its past, where every street seems to hold a story and every choice has weight.