Hot Picks: Half Man

As the second series to drop from creative Richard Gadd following the global clamour around Baby Reindeer, Half Man was always likely to garner interest.

What is perhaps less well-known is that the series was already taking shape before Netflix’s breakout hit was close to hitting screens, and Banijay’s interest and involvement came early on.

“The commitment to Half Man was made way before Baby Reindeer launched. It was something Tally [Garner] from Mam Tor was developing, and it was delayed because of Baby Reindeer,” says Banijay Rights chief executive Cathy Payne.

Like its predecessor, the six-episode BBC/HBO original promises to be a dark and difficult watch – “it says something”, as Payne puts it – with Gadd and Bafta winner Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers; Rocket Man) starring as estranged ‘brothers’ Ruben and Niall, respectively.

When Ruben shows up unexpectedly at Niall’s wedding, their lives are intertwined once again in an eruption of violence. Spanning almost 40 years from the 1980s to the present day, we’re taken back through the pair’s lives, exploring the poles of their relationship, from their teenage years to the time they fell out as adults.

Laced with their experiences of happiness, anger and sadness, Half Man aims to capture the changing world and interrogate the complex question: what does it mean to be a man?

“Even though it’s likely to only be one season – by the nature of it – it was a really good read, and it’s an interesting subject,” says Payne of the show, which delves deep into how males express their emotions. “We see quite a lot of dramas about sisters, [warts and all], so I like to see that male perspective. It’s very real, it’s tough, it’s challenging.”

At a time when some buyers have been looking for procedurals or dramas offering levity and a lightness of touch, a character event series with intense themes and some potentially troubling sub-texts might be seen as more of a punt. But Payne says the show reflects the “balanced approach” to her slate.

She adds: “You want some things that sit in genre pieces and others that are great creatively and pop out of the box. You have to be bold, ambitious and take risks. Some risks you have to mitigate and look at the market. But if I look back, I still always say the hardest shows I ever sold were Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror. People thought we were crazy when we went with both of those shows.

“I have faith in Tally’s vision of the show – it’s been commissioned by the BBC, which has an understanding of its audience and is always a tick for me, but it’s also a gut feeling.”

Payne points to the response to Adolescence as an indicator that viewers are not just looking for lighter fare, adding: “There’s no light in that but it’s a good story. This isn’t something that’s [a commitment to] 13 episodes or more - it’s six episodes and it says something. People will go with it.”

The distribution exec adds that while the company is finding it harder to sell true stories “in the 3 x 60-minute” category, limited series like Half Man, that are “not based on any particular time or event, and could happen in any culture around the world”, are easier.

Banijay Rights has struck a series of pre-sales – details of which are under wraps – and Payne adds that the tone of the show puts it firmly in the “premium pay” bracket.