Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters) is really happy that her latest project, the revenge thriller series Reunion, set in the deaf community and debuting in the U.K. on Monday, is airing on public broadcaster BBC and its iPlayer streaming service.
“It’s the BBC, so you know, it’s going to be seen by everyone, not just people who can afford to pay streaming fees. That’s important because watching TV has become quite an expensive hobby now. And just the idea, always and ever, that what we do can be important and that there’s a point to it, and anyone who feels marginalized gets to see themselves is a huge relief.”
The four-part drama, starring Matthew Gurney as a deaf man who gets to leave prison after years of incarceration, Lara Peake, Eddie Marsan and Rose Ayling-Ellis, was written by Sheffield-born deaf writer William Mager and produced by Sheffield-based Warp Films, the production firm behind Netflix hit drama Adolescence. The bilingual series, filmed in and around Sheffield, features both British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English.
The BBC will start airing the show on Monday evening on its flagship network, BBC One, while the entire series is now available on the iPlayer. BBC Studios is selling the series internationally after unveiling a selection of photos in February.
Reunion, whose set THR visited last year to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the inclusive production, such as hearing crewmembers being taught a word or phrase in BSL at the start of each filming day, is a redemption thriller following the journey of Daniel Brennan, played by Gurney (Name Me Lawand), a deaf man determined to right wrongs after leaving prison. Caught between two worlds, he is unable to fully integrate into the hearing world and is also shunned by his closest friends and the wider deaf community.
“Amidst this isolation, Brennan’s only meaningful relationship is with his estranged daughter Carly, played by Lara Peake (How to Have Sex, Rivals), who he has not had any contact with since his arrest over a decade ago,” according to a synopsis. “Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters, The Salisbury Poisonings) stars as Christine, desperate to find Brennan and get to the full truth behind what he did, alongside Eddie Marsan (Back to Black, Ray Donovan) as Stephen Renworth, Christine’s protective boyfriend, while Rose Ayling-Ellis (Summer of Rockets, As You Like It) plays her daughter, Miri.”
The hour-long episodes of Reunion were directed by Luke Snellin (One Day, Wanderlust) who also served 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 creator and writer Mager, with Rebecca Ferguson and Jo McClellan serving in those roles for the BBC.