Hot Picks: Tall Tales & Murder

Sometimes a show comes along that chooses to throw convention out of the window and deliver something that “isn’t a version of anything else”. Sounds simple in practice but for those in the scripted game, it’s a tough task. That’s precisely what Tall Tales & Murder has managed to achieve.

This dark comedic drama hails from Love/Hate creator Stuart Carolan and Chris Addison, and has production pedigree in spades with Avalon (Starstruck; Catastrophe) and Ireland’s Metropolitan Pictures (Kin) producing. 

The six-part first season is described as a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style adventure involving bent policemen, kidnappings, underworld fixers and the dilemmas of unconventional heroes and villains. Starring Ella-Lily Hyland (Black Doves), TV newcomer Casey Walsh, Philippa Dunne (Amandaland) and Aidan Gillen (Love/Hate), the story explores how a nurse and a criminal trying to go straight become involved in a wild chase for a gangster’s buried Celtic gold.

The show was shot in Ireland and is based on Caimh McDonnell’s nine-book Dublin Trilogy. Addison says it was the first book, A Man With One Of Those Faces, that caught his attention – so he took it to Avalon, which bought the rights.

“The irony is, though, that the process of adapting it has taken us far away from the original source material. I like to think of our show as being the badly behaved goth cousin to Caimh’s brilliant novels,” he adds.

Addison describes the show as a “bonkers, crimey comedy-drama”, but it wasn’t a tough pitch to get the BBC and RTÉ greenlight – in fact, they ordered two seasons. “It’s quite an unusual and original world, which is what both RTÉ and the BBC were looking out for. The show isn’t a version of anything else - it’s very much its own thing. We were very lucky that [commissioners] David Crean at RTÉ and Eddie Doyle at the BBC weren’t trying to fill some kind of quota – they just liked the idea of the world that we brought to them.”

The show is “massively rooted” in its Irish setting, Addison says, with a refreshing focus on geographical specificity. He and Carolan wanted to ensure the series “felt like an Irish show first and foremost, rather than one set in some version of Ireland that’s designed for non-Irish viewers”.

And because the series starts out “a little odd and then slowly goes fully bananas, it absolutely has to be grounded in something real and true, and its Irishness goes a long way to ensuring that,” he adds.

For Avalon head of distribution Paula Warwick, the sell is clear. “It’s a wildly original, high-stakes crime drama,” she says, describing the show as “a genuinely distinctive piece of TV”.

Warwick adds that she has been “overwhelmed” with international interest, while the two-season order “makes it an even more compelling proposition for buyers”. It has already pre-sold into more than 20 territories, with Germany’s ZDF Neo and Australia’s SBS among those on board.

“This is a primetime BBC and RTÉ commission, so it plays to a broad audience. That said, it also connects with a slightly younger demo, thanks to the ingenious writing, the talented cast and Chris’s distinctive directing, giving it the potential to reach beyond traditional crime-drama viewers.”