''Small Town, Big Story'' is a television series created by

Chris O'Dowd Christopher O'Dowd (born 9 October 1979) is an Irish actor and comedian. He received wide attention as Roy Trenneman, one of the lead characters in the Channel 4 comedy ''The IT Crowd'', which ran for four seasons from 2006 to 2010. He has star ...

in association with

Sky Studios Sky Studios is a production company founded by Sky in June 2019 with assets from the now defunct Sky Vision. It develops, produces and funds original drama, comedy and documentary, and has investments in a number of production businesses in ...

and filmed in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The series stars

Christina Hendricks Christina Rene Hendricks (born May 3, 1975) is an American actress and former model. With an extensive career on screen and stage, she has received various accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Critics' Choice Awards, as ...

and

Paddy Considine Patrick George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for playing antiheros in independent films. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard British ...

in main roles while O'Dowd and Hendricks also serve as executive producers. The series premiered on 27 February 2025.

Premise

The series is set in the fictional rural Northern Irish town of Drumbán, where Hollywood producer Wendy Patterson returns with a major film production, only to shine a spotlight on a hidden secret: the town has a long history of attracting interstellar visitors, a phenomenon she has witnessed and kept quiet about for a quarter of a century.

Cast

as Wendy Patterson *

as Séamus Proctor *

David Rawle David Rawle (born 16 October 2000) is an Irish actor from Carrigallen, County Leitrim. He is best known for starring in the Irish sitcom ''Moone Boy'', co-written by and co-starring Chris O'Dowd. His first audition for acting was for Santa C ...

as Sonny Proctor *

Eileen Walsh Eileen Walsh (born 16 April 1977) is an Irish actress. Her credits include '' Miss Julie'' (1999), '' Janice Beard 45 WPM'' (1999), '' When Brendan Met Trudy'' (2000), '' The Magdalene Sisters'' (2002), '' Pure Mule'' (2005), ''Eden'' (2008), ' ...

as Catherine Proctor *

Clarke Peters Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American actor, writer, and director, who has spent much of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television ...

as Chet Donald *

Tim Heidecker Timothy Richard Heidecker (; born February 3, 1976) is an American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician. Along with Eric Wareheim, he is a member of the comedy duo Tim & Eric. As an actor, Heidecker's filmography includes roles in ' ...

as Brad *

Leia Murphy Leia Murphy is an Irish television actress. She had a lead role in comedy-horror series ''Video Nasty'' (2025). Her television roles also include '' Small Town, Big Story'' (2025). Early life Murphy is from Lucan, County Dublin, and attended the ...

as Joanne Proctor *

Patrick Martins Patrick Martins (born 19 May 1997) is an Irish actor. He is known for his stage work and his roles in the Virgin Media One crime drama '' Redemption'' (2022) and the ITVX period drama '' The Confessions of Frannie Langton'' (2022). His films in ...

as Jules O’Brien * Evanne Kilgallon as Shelly McGoldrick * Andrew Bennett as Barry Battles *

Ruth McCabe Ruth McCabe is an Irish stage, screen and voice actress known from Clones, County Monaghan. She is known for starring as Kay Curley in Stephen Frears ''The Snapper (film), The Snapper'', Christy Brown's paramour Mary in ''My Left Foot'', and Wyn ...

as Betty Battles *

David Wilmot David Wilmot may refer to: * David Wilmot (politician) * David Wilmot (actor) David Wilmot is an Ireland, Irish actor best known for his roles in ''Michael Collins (film), Michael Collins'' (1996), ''I Went Down'' (1997), ''Intermission (fil ...

as Keith McCurdle *

Susan Lynch Susan Lynch (born 1971) is an actress from Northern Ireland. She is known for her role in the 2003 film '' 16 Years of Alcohol''. Her other film appearances include '' Waking Ned Devine'' (1998), '' Nora'' (2000), '' Beautiful Creatures'' (200 ...

as Jemima Rowland * Sam C Wilson as Big Jim * Michėle Forbes as Barbara * Peter McGann as Matt Magee *

as Jack E McCarthy * Jamie Michie as Pubba McGoldrick *

Ian McElhinney Ian McElhinney (born 30 June 1948) is a Northern Irish actor and director. He has appeared in many television series in a career spanning more than forty years; notable appearances include ''Taggart'', '' Hornblower'', ''Cold Feet'', and ''The ...

as Reverend Patterson *

Deirdre O'Kane use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , education ...

as Carol from Casting *

Ruth Codd Ruth Codd (born 13 June 1996) is an Irish actress. She is best known for starring as Anya in Netflix mystery thriller series '' The Midnight Club'' (2022) and Juno Usher in the Netflix horror miniseries ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' (2023). ...

as Production Peggy

Production

Development

The series is created and written by

. He wrote the show during the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

whilst in lockdown on a production in Canada. He has described it as a "cultural cousin" to his 2010s series ''

Moone Boy ''Moone Boy'' is an Irish sitcom created, co-written by and co-starring Chris O'Dowd for British broadcaster Sky One. The series is co-written by Nick Murphy (writer), Nick Vincent Murphy and is produced by Baby Cow Productions, Sprout Pictures ...

'', with both productions sharing a lot of the same crew. O'Dowd is also a director on the series alongside Catherine Morshead, Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman.

Playground Entertainment The Playground, LLC, commonly referred to as Playground Entertainment, is an independent television, film, and theater production company based in New York and London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the Unit ...

and

FilmNation Entertainment FilmNation Entertainment, LLC is an American entertainment company focused on film production, financing, and distribution. History 2008–2012: Founding FilmNation Entertainment is an independent film production and distribution company co-f ...

also produce in association with

Colin Callender Sir Colin Nigel Callender (born May 1952) is a British television, film and theater producer. He is the former President of HBO Films and Founder/Chairman of Playground Entertainment, a production company based in New York and London. Callend ...

and Scott Huff are executive producers for Playground, Stefanie Berk and Milan Popelka are executive producers for FilmNation Entertainment and Alex Moody is executive producer for Sky Studios.

and O’Dowd are also executive producers with Liz Gill the series producer.

Casting

The cast is led by Hendricks alongside

, and also includes

, Evanne Kilgallon, Andrew Bennett,

and

as well as Michėle Forbes and Peter McGann and a cameo appearance from O'Dowd. There are also roles for

, Sam C. Wilson and

Maeve Higgins Maeve Anna Higgins (born 24 March 1981) is a comedian from Cobh, County Cork, Ireland and is based in New York City. She was a principal actor and writer of the RTÉ television production ''Naked Camera'', as well as for her own show ''Maeve H ...

Filming

The six-part series was filmed on location around

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

and

Boyle, County Roscommon Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gara ...

, with production starting by September 2023 and wrapping in February 2024.

Broadcast

The series premiered on

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group, Sky Group Limited that launched in 2011 and broadcasts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel airs original British-produced dramas like ''Fortitude (TV series), F ...

and

Sky Max Sky Max is a British pay television channel and on-demand service which launched on 1 September 2021. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a subsidiary of Comcast. The service broadcasts a variety of drama, comedy-drama, and unscripted serie ...

in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2025.

Critical reception

''Small Town, Big Story'' holds an 67% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

'' based on six reviews, with an average score of 5.6/10.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Small Town, Big Story 2025 British television series debuts 2025 British television series endings Sky Atlantic original programming British English-language television shows Television shows set in Northern Ireland Television shows set in the Republic of Ireland Television shows filmed in the Republic of Ireland