Extraordinary star Máiréad Tyers is leading Channel 4, Universal Content Productions (UCP) and Element Pictures’ adaptation of Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident, which has set cast.
Tyers, who played the lead in hit Disney+ show Extraordinary, will star as the titular character alongside Ellis Howard (What It Feels Like for a Girl, Red Rose) as James, Sarah Greene (Bad Sisters, Normal People) as Deenie and Daniel Ings (The Gentlemen, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) as Dr. Fred Byrne.
The hit novel is set in Cork in 2010 and follows a student working at a bookstore when she meets James. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James invites Rachel to be his roommate, and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of their lives forever. 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. O’Donoghue is adapting her book for the small screen.
Cast is rounded out by Cúán Hosty-Blaney (Say Nothing, House of Guinness) as Carey, Ciarán Dowd (Bad Sisters, Marriage) as Ben, Helen Behan (Malpractice, The Virtues) as Bridget, Ardal O’Hanlon (Sherlock and Daughter, The Woman in the Wall) as Paul, Jeanne Ní Áinle (Hidden Assets, North Sea Connection) as Sabrina, Molly McFadden as Sinead and Maria Doyle Kennedy (KIN, Recipes For Love And Murder) as Vivian.
The Rachel Incident is one of the splashier Channel 4 dramas commissioned in recent times and is being made by UCP and Normal People maker Element in association with Pageboy Productions.
O’Donoghue said Tyers was “always 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,” she added. “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.”
The Rachel Incident was commissioned by Rebecca Holdsworth, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4 Drama. The series is filmed with support from Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland. Executive producers for Element are Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Christopher Aird and Chelsea Morgan Hoffmann. Pageboy Productions’ Matt Jordan Smith and Elliot Page are EPs with Tuck Dowrey as associate producer. Jen Statsky serves as EP through her First Thought Productions. The eight-part series is written, created and executive produced by O’Donoghue. Emma Fleischer is producer and also serves as EP with Giulia Gandini and Megan K Fox directing. The series will be distributed by NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution.