''Conversations with Friends'' is an Irish television serial based on the 2017 novel of the same name by the Irish author

Sally Rooney Sally Rooney (born 20 February 1991) is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published three novels: ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017), ''Normal People'' (2018), and ''Beautiful World, Where Are You'' (2021). ''Normal People'' was adapt ...

. Developed by

Element Pictures Element Pictures is an Irish film studio, cinema and television production company

for

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

and

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

in association with

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

, it is the second adaptation by this crew of a Rooney novel after ''

Normal People ''Normal People'' is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. ''Normal People'' is Rooney's second novel, published after ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a b ...

'' in 2020. ''Conversations with Friends'' was first broadcast on 15 May 2022. The series received generally favourable reviews with praise for the performance of lead cast and aesthetics.

Cast

Main

Alison Oliver Alison Oliver (born 3 June 1997) is an Irish actress. She is known for her debut role as Frances in the BBC Three and Hulu miniseries ''Conversations with Friends'' (2022). Early life Oliver was born in Ballintemple, Cork before moving to Blac ...

as Frances Flynn *

Sasha Lane Sasha Bianca Lane (born September 29, 1995) is an American actress. She made her film debut in ''American Honey'' (2016), directed by Andrea Arnold, before portraying Hunter C-20 in the first season of the Disney+ television series ''Loki'', set ...

as Bobbi Connolly *

Joe Alwyn Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born 21 February 1991) is an English actor. He made his feature film debut as the titular character in Ang Lee's 2016 war drama, '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk,'' and has since played supporting roles in films such as ...

as Nick Conway *

Jemima Kirke Jemima Jo M Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a British-American artist, actress and director. She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson on the HBO series ''Girls''. She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short '' Smil ...

as Melissa Baines

Supporting

* Alex Murphy as Philip, Frances and Bobbi's friend * Caoimhe Coburn Gray as Aideen, Frances and Bobbi's friend * Justine Mitchell as Paula Flynn, Frances' mother *

Tommy Tiernan Tommy Tiernan (; born 16 June 1969) is an Irish comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for hosting ''The Tommy Tiernan Show'' (2017–present) and playing Gerry in the sitcom ''Derry Girls'' (2018–2022). Early life Tiernan was born in ...

as Dennis Flynn, Frances' alcoholic father *

Kerry Fox Kerry Lauren Fox (born 30 July 1966) is a New Zealand actress. She came to prominence playing author Janet Frame in the movie ''An Angel at My Table'' directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and ...

as Valerie Taylor-Gates, Melissa's agent * Tadhg Murphy as Derek, a long time friend of Nick and Melissa *

Sallay Garnett Sallay-Matu Garnett, (stage-name: Loah) and Emma Garnett (stage-name: Feather/Fehdah), are Irish singer-songwriters of Sierra Leonean descent. They perform individually, but have contributed to each other's work. They have written in English, ...

as Evelyn, Melissa and Nick's friend * Emmanuel Okoye as Andrew, Aideen's boyfriend

Episodes

Production

Development

In February 2020, it was announced that ''

Conversations with Friends ''Conversations with Friends'' is the 2017 debut novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney, about two young women who become involved with an older couple in Dublin's literary scene. The novel was published by Faber and Faber and received critical ...

'' would be made into a 12-episode miniseries, and that most of the creative team behind the adaptation of Rooney's second novel, ''

'', including

Element Pictures Element Pictures is an Irish film studio, cinema and television production company

, director

Lenny Abrahamson Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. He is known for directing such praised independent films as ''Adam & Paul'' (2004), ''Garage'' (2007), ''What Richard Did'' (2012), and ''Frank'' (2014), an ...

, and co-writer

Alice Birch Alice Birch is a British playwright and screenwriter. Birch has written several plays, including ''Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.'' for which she was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright, and ''Anatomy of a Suicide' ...

, would be returning for this adaptation. Mark O'Halloran, Meadhbh McHugh, and Susan Soon He Stanton were added as writers, and Leanne Welham was added as a director.

Casting

The cast was announced in February 2021, with Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, Sasha Lane, and Alison Oliver as the book's main quartet.

Filming

Principal photography began in April 2021, in Northern Ireland. Locations include Northern Ireland, Ireland, and

Hvar Hvar (; Chakavian: ''Hvor'' or ''For'', el, Φάρος, Pharos, la, Pharia, it, Lesina) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, located off the Dalmatian coast, lying between the islands of Brač, Vis and Korčula. Approximately long, wi ...

, Croatia. Cast and crew were on set in

Bray, County Wicklow Bray ( ) is a coastal town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated about south of Dublin city centre on the east coast. It has a population of 32,600 making it the ninth largest urban area within Ireland (at the 2016 census). Bray is ...

that July.

Release

The series premiered/released on 15 May 2022, on

and

. It premiered on

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís � ...

on Wednesday May 18 with a feature-length episode.

Endeavor Content Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (formerly known as William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, WME or WME-IMG) is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The compa ...

will distribute the series internationally.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the limited series holds a 60% approval rating based on 58 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "'While the characters are unevenly compelling and the overlong plotting makes these ''Conversations'' often go in circles, this adaptation retains some of the observant wisdom that made

's novel shine." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{Sally Rooney 2022 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2020s British LGBT-related drama television series 2020s British television miniseries BBC television dramas Bisexuality-related television series Hulu original programming Television shows based on Irish novels Television shows filmed in Northern Ireland Television shows filmed in the Republic of Ireland