Anthony Boyle to star in TV adaptation of beloved Irish novel Close to Home

A series based on the novel Close to Home is in the works

Best-selling novel Close to Home is the next Irish book to be adapted for the big screen. The beloved Michael Magee novel is set to hit the small screen with Anthony Boyle leading the cast.

The House of Guinness star will play Sean. Jessica Reynolds will play Mairéad, Seamus O’Hara will star as Anthony, and Trespasses actor Oisín Thompson has been cast as Ryan.

The four-part series will be directed by Diarmuid Goggins. Channel 4 has not yet confirmed a release date, but filming will begin in Belfast later this month.

Close to Home has been described as "a striking tale of love, trauma, and finding your place in the scarred city you call home."

Close to Home by Michael Magee was originally published in 2023.

While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does every­thing he's supposed to do. He works hard, he studies, and he - mostly - stays out of trouble. The thirty-year conflict is over, he's told, and his future is lit with promise.

But when Sean returns home from university, he finds much of the same-the same friends doing the same gear in the same clubs; the same lost broth­ers and mad fathers; the same closed doors; the same silences. There are no jobs, Sean's degree isn't worth the paper it's written on, and no one will give him the time of day. One night, he assaults a stranger at a party, and everything begins to come undone.

If you've not yet read the book, then you can buy a copy here.

You can also buy the Kindle version here.