Filming begins for Channel 4 adaptation of Cork novel The Rachel Incident
Caroline O'Donoghue with the cast of The Rachel Incident
Máiréad Tyers, Sarah Green and Daniel Ing have been confirmed among the cast of a drama series based on Caroline O’Donoghue’s best-selling novel.
Filming has started in Ireland on the series for Channel 4, with O’Donoghue adapting the novel for screen. The eight-part series is filled with unrequited love and humour, and focuses on friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three.
Leading the cast is Máiréad Tyers as Rachel, starring alongside Ellis Howard as James. They are joined by star Sarah Greene as Deenie and Daniel Ings, who is currently starring in as Dr Fred Byrne.
“I am so excited and grateful to be part of this project. I read the book when it first came out and fell in love with Caroline’s writing and this story,” says Tyers.
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.
Also joining the line-up is Cúán Hosty-Blaney as Carey, Ciarán Dowd as Ben, Helen Behan as Bridget, star Ardal O’Hanlon as Paul, Jeanne Ní Áinle as Sabrina, Molly McFadden as Sinead, and Maria Doyle Kennedy as Vivian.
“Máiréad Tyers is a star and has always been my first choice to play Rachel. She and the phenomenally charming Ellis Howard create what feels like an instantly iconic double act, fizzing with all the love and panic that makes being in your early twenties both nightmarish and amazing,” says O’Donoghue.
“To have the brilliant Sarah Greene and Daniel Ings as Deenie and Fred is a dream, and I'm gushing with enthusiasm for the rest of the cast who make the world of feel so alive and full of energy - including but not limited to Ardal O'Hanlon and Maria Doyle Kennedy, actors I grew up loving and still can't believe are joining our team.”
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