Mitchell Robertson (A Very British Scandal), Stuart Campbell (SAS Rogue Heroes), Neve McIntosh (Gormenghast) and Marianne McIvor (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) have joined the cast for the HBO and BBC co-produced drama Half Man, formerly titled Lions, from Baby Reindeer creator and Sex Education writer Richard Gadd.
Scottish comic and actor Gadd and County Durham native and Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell were previously announced as leads for Half Man back in 2024, which which will run on the BBC in the U.K. and Ireland and HBO in the United States.
The series, which Gadd is also writing and executive producing, marks his first project since Baby Reindeer became a huge Netflix breakout and multiple Emmy winner – it was also nominated this morning for three awards at the 2025 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards.
Half Man follows estranged brothers Niall (Bell) and Ruben (Gadd), whose attendance at a wedding leads to an explosion of violence that catapults the audience back over four decades from their first meeting as teenagers to their later falling out as adults. The six-parter, now shooting in Scotland, sees Robertson playing young Niall; Campbell as young Ruben; McIntosh in the role of Lori, Niall’s mother; and McIvor as Mauram, Ruben’s mother.
The ensemble cast for the a decades-spanning and complicated history of the two men also includes Charlie De Melo, Bilal Hasna, Julie Cullen, Philippine Velge, Stuart McQuarrie, Piers Ewart, Scot Greenan, Charlotte Blackwood and Calum Manchip.
HBO joined the BBC to order the series in June, 2024. Lindsay Salt, who commissioned Baby Reindeer for Netflix, is now director of drama at the BBC and helped bring Half Man to the BBC and HBO.
Gadd, who also has a first-look deal at Netflix (signed after the Half Man series had already been picked up by the streaming giant’s UK and US rivals) is executive producing the drama with Tally Garner and Morven Reid of Mam Tor Productions (a Banijay UK company), Gaynor Holmes for the BBC and Gavin Smith for BBC Scotland. Wendy Griffin is producing. Alexandra Brodski and Eshref Reybrouck will direct.
