Baby Reindeer transcended your regular TV series release, tapping into the zeitgeist and becoming something of a pop-culture phenomenon. It’s naturally quite the challenge to follow up a show of that nature, but it’s a challenge accepted, and risen to, by Scottish writer/actor Richard Gadd, in his brand new show Half Man, which launches on the BBC on April 24th.
To mark the occasion we had the pleasure of sitting down with the man himself, to explore his ability to balance brutality with tenderness in his storytelling, and how he breaks down yet another complex, charged relationship between two flawed and troubled souls. He also opens up about his physical transformation, the pressures of acting in such a dark role, and why empathy is at the heart of everything he writes. And of course, we couldn’t help but ask about the pressure that comes with following on from Baby Reindeer.
Watch the full interview, in its entirety, with Richard Gadd here:
Plot
Niall and Ruben are brothers. Not related in blood but the closest you can get. One, fierce and loyal. The other, meek and mild-mannered. Inseparable youth. Brought into each other’s lives through death and circumstance, all they have is each other…
But when Ruben turns up at Niall’s wedding three decades later, everything seems different. He is on edge. Shifty. Not acting like himself. And soon, an explosion of violence takes place, catapulting us back through their lives, from the eighties to the present day. Capturing 30 years in the lives of these broken men, Half Man explores 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.
Half Man is available on BBC iPlayer on April 24th
