The BBC has released first-look pictures of brand-new four-part thriller Reunion, featuring Bad Sisters star Anne-Marie Duff, alongside Eddie Marsan, Matthew Gurney, Lara Peake and Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Reunion is a bilingual series filmed in and around Sheffield featuring both British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English and is produced by Sheffield’s Warp Films.
The first-look pictures, set against the striking landscape of Sheffield and the Peak District, offer a glimpse of the lead cast in their roles and showcase the powerful drama and use of BSL throughout the series.
Written by Sheffield-born deaf writer William Mager, Reunion is an emotional thriller of revenge and redemption following the journey of Daniel Brennan, played by Gurney (Four Deaf Yorkshireman Go To Blackpool, Theatre Ad Infinitum Theatre Company), a deaf man determined to right his wrongs while unravelling the truth behind the events that led him to prison.
Brennan embodies the struggle of a man caught between two worlds, unable to fully integrate into the hearing world and shunned by his closest friends and the wider deaf community following his heinous crime. Amidst this isolation, Brennan’s only meaningful relationship is with his estranged daughter Carly, played by Peake (How to Have Sex, Rivals), who he has had no contact with since his arrest over a decade ago.
Duff (Bad Sisters, The Salisbury Poisonings) stars as Christine, desperate to find Brennan and get to the full truth behind what he did, alongside Marsan (Gangs of New York, Vera Drake) as Stephen Renworth, Christine’s protective boyfriend, while Ayling-Ellis (Summer of Rockets, As You Like It) plays her daughter, Miri.
Gurney said: “Reunion is an amazing storyline and is completely different from my previous work. My character Brennan is on a wildly different journey than that portrayed by normal deaf lives, this portrays a man who is hated within the deaf community. It shows how deaf people react and act on screen in an honest and authentic way. We are different to hearing actors, we are so much more visual storytellers, it’s not about relying on sound it’s about using your eyes and seeing what is going on in the story.”
Peake added: “There’s so much in Reunion that people can relate to from the relationships and storyline to what it feels like to be isolated from a community and welcomed into a community. To be able to watch a show that is led by deaf actors is incredible and the inclusion of sign language is not seen often enough. It’s a real opportunity to learn and become fascinated and immersed in that world.”
Reunion (4×60) is created and written by William Mager. The series is directed by Luke Snellin (One Day, Wanderlust) who also acts as executive producer, with Helen Ostler (The Last Kingdom, Crime) as producer, and Siobhan Morgan (Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks) as associate producer. Mark Herbert (Four Lions, The Virtues, This is England) and Gwen Gorst (Unforgotten, A Discovery of Witches) are executive producers for Warp Films, alongside series writer Mager, with Rebecca Ferguson and Jo McClellan for the BBC. Reunion is supported by Screen Yorkshire.
BBC Studios will distribute the series internationally and will be launching the series to the global market at Series Mania in Lille, France this March. Reunion is coming soon to BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
