Anthony Boyle has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
From his humble beginnings in Derry Girls, to leading Disney+’s Say Nothing and Netflix’s House of Guinness, his star power is certainly on the rise.
Now he will lead another TV show based on Michael Magee’s novel, Close to Home.
Channel 4 confirmed the news that the best novel would be adapted into a mini-series.
What is Close to Home about?
Close to Home tells the story of Sean, a young man who finds himself back in Belfast. Back from university and back into old habits.
Back on the mad all-nighters, the borrowed tenners and missing rent, the casual jobs that always fall through. Back with his brother, his ma and all the things they never talk about.
Back where the promised prosperity of peacetime has yet to arrive and every street has a story to tell. One night, Sean assaults a stranger at a party and everything is tipped into chaos.
Who is behind it?
Element Pictures, the company behind Normal People, will be producing it.
Filming for the series kicks off in Belfast in February.
Author Michael Magee will adapt it for the small screen.
Who’s in it?
Anthony will star as Sean, alongside his House of Guinness co-star, Seamus O’Hara as Anthony. The series will also see Jessica Reynolds take on the role of Mairéad and Oisín Thompson as Ryan.
What can we expect from the show?
Seamus O’Hara told VIP Magazine: “Close to Home has just started filming. We’re very, very excited. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a book called Close to Home written by Michael Magee who’s from Belfast. It’s very much regarded as a generational novel, it came out in 2023. It explores the experience of young people in cycles of poverty and violence, especially post-1998, post-Troubles in Northern Ireland. That’s the tagline. But apart from that, it’s a very riotous, human story. It’s profoundly Irish and it has a profoundly Irish cast.
“There are so many stories right now, being told about Northern Ireland. And we never take it for granted that we are getting the opportunity that we get to tell them. We go in every time trying to be the best we’ve ever been. I’m looking forward to getting to work with him again.”
While Anthony Boyle told us: “I’m so excited. Like genuinely. We’ve been filming all week. I’m buzzing, it’s my first time executive producing, so I’m trying to make it as authentic and truthful and West Belfast as I can. I’m just so happy to be a part of it,” he tells us with the biggest smile.
“I read the book, and I tried to get the rights, but they had sold them to Element. I came on board after that, so they had set it up.
“I’m just buzzed! It’s just so good, we have Michael, the author, on set. I was with him this morning, performing scenes that he has actually lived through.
“He’s there telling us, ‘It’s a bit like this, it’s a bit like that.’ We’re trying to make it as true to the book as possible for fans of the book.”
Michael Magee, Novelist and Writer, said in a statement: “Developing Close to Home for television has been an intensely fulfilling creative experience, a dream come true, really, and I’m incredibly grateful to Michael Dawson and Clare Dwyer Hogg for all the work they’ve done with me on the scripts, and to Diarmuid Goggins and Gemma Boswell and the whole team at Element and Channel 4 for the passion and creative energy they’ve put into bringing this story to life.”