Máiréad Tyers to Lead Channel 4's 'The Rachel Incident'
The former Extraordinary heroine will lead the eight-part adaptation of Caroline O’Donoghue’s novel.
While many of us (read: me) are likely still mourning the loss of Hulu’s gone-too-soon superhero dramedy Extraordinary, its former star has landed what appears to be her next big role. Máiréad Tyers is set to lead Channel 4’s The Rachel Incident, a twentysomething coming-of-age series about love, sex, friendship, betrayal, and more.
Based on Caroline O’Donoghue’s best-selling novel, the story follows the titular Rachel, whose immediate and intense friendship with bookstore clerk James changes the course of her life, leading to a complicated year of love, secrets, and betrayal as she falls for her married professor and their lives become intertwined with his wife’s. The book explores themes of love, friendship, and growing up, set against the backdrop of an Ireland in chaos amid the Great Recession.
“I am so excited and grateful to be part of this project,” Tyers said in a statement. “I read the book when it first came out and fell in love with Caroline’s writing and this story.”
Here’s the series synopsis.
Set in Cork in 2010, Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James - and it is love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate, and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork City, trying to cultivate a bohemian existence while the reality of the recent financial crash looms over them.
When Rachel admits to a huge crush on her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a launch for his new book at the store, with the hope that she might seduce him afterwards… But Fred, as it turns out, has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred's wife Deenie, an incredibly cool and well-connected literary editor.
Alongside Tyers, the series also stars Ellis Howard (Help) as James, Sarah Greene (Normal People) as Deenie, and Daniel Ings (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) as Dr. Fred Byrne. Other members of the ensemble cast include Maria Doyle Kennedy (Recipes For Love & Murder) as Vivian, Cúán Hosty-Blaney (Say Nothing) as Carey, Ciarán Dowd (Bad Sisters) as Ben, Helen Behan (Malpractice) as Bridget, Ardal O’Hanlon (Sherlock & Daughter) as Paul, Jeanne Ní Áinle (Hidden Assets) as Sabrina, and Molly McFadden (Finding Joy) as Sinead.
The eight-part series is created, written, and executive produced by O’Donoghue, with Megan K. Fox directing. Other executive producers include Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Christopher Aird, and Chelsea Morgan Hoffmann for Element Pictures, Matt Jordan Smith and Elliot Page for PAGEBOY Productions, and Jen Statsky for First Thought Productions. The series will be distributed by NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution.
Filming on The Rachel Incident is currently underway in Ireland. No American distributor has been announced as yet.
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