Richard Gadd reveals new show Half Man pre-dates Baby Reindeer – and why it had to be on the BBC

Following his acclaimed first series Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd is back with a new drama, Half Man, this time airing on the BBC.

A co-production with HBO, the series stars Gadd alongside Jamie Bell, and follows Niall and Ruben, two men who are brought together in youth and become like brothers.

When Ruben turns up at Niall’s wedding 30 years later, an explosion of violence takes place, catapulting us back through their lives, from the eighties to the present day. The series explores brotherhood, violence and the intense fragility of male relationships.

Speaking at a Q&A for the series, Gadd recently revealed that he had the idea for Half Man "a long time ago", and in fact wrote the first episode before Baby Reindeer.

"It kind of sat there, then Baby Reindeer was commissioned, and I went off to do that, and I was hoping it would be there at the end of it," he said. "But the genesis of it happened quite a number of years ago."

Gadd continued: "There was obviously such a big discussion and conversation around men, male behaviour, male violence, male repression, all these things.

"And it's not that I took the discussion and thought, ‘I need to talk about that.’ Just something sparked in my mind, I was kind of just like, ‘Where does this kind of stuff come from?’ And that's thinking about societal repression.

"I think a lot of behaviour from men, when they get into later life, can stem back to traumas and things they learned in their childhood. Because I think in your formative years, when bad things happen to you or you experience trauma or traumatic things, you're developing. Your brain is developing, everything's developing.

"So I think it stays in there and becomes very hard to sort of uproot. And so the whole idea came from there. And really, moreover than any sort of socio-political aspect, it was just an idea that kind of took me. I always come up with ideas for things, but if I can shake them within a day I’m like, ‘Well, they weren't worth thinking about.’

"But this one, I couldn't shake, it stayed with me. And it stayed with me all the way through Baby Reindeer and I would always be, ‘Oh, please, can it still be there the other side?’ Because I knew BBC were interested, and I really wanted to do it with the Beeb. And I just would always hope and pray it was still there. And, luckily, it was."

Gadd was then asked why the series had to be on the BBC, to which he simply said: "I love the BBC."

"I think it's an incredible channel, it's done incredible work," he continued. "I think about all the work that's inspired me down the years, God, I could list so many things. When I saw The Office when I was a kid, that blew my mind, I still think it's possibly the best television show ever made.

"I suppose my life sort of changed, when I would research into Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais and I'd research into them doing The Office, and I was like, ‘Oh, they wrote it, they were in it…’ I caught the dream when I saw it and I was like, ‘That's what I want to do with my life.’ I was very young and I knew, thanks to a BBC show, what I wanted to be.

"I think the BBC is incredible. I think in this day and age, not to get too political, information without bias is now more important than ever. So it's an honour. It's a privilege to be part of the BBC."

In Half Man, Gadd's character Ruben, also played at a younger age by Stuart Campbell, is fierce, violent and loyal. Meanwhile, Bell's character Niall, also played by Mitchell Robertson, is meek and mild-mannered.

Also starring in the six-part series are Neve McIntosh (Doctor Who), Marianne McIvor (The Bombing of Pan Am 103), Charlie De Melo (Rivals), Bilal Hasna (The Agency), Julie Cullen (Traces), Amy Manson (The Nevers) and Anjli Mohindra (The Lazarus Project).

Half Man will arrive on BBC iPlayer at 6am on Friday 24 April 2026.

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