Richard Gadd's Half Man: HBO and BBC Debut Teases a Gripping New Drama
Two years after the storm around Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd returns to screens with Half Man, a new drama developed for HBO and BBC. The first trailer hints at a tense, character-driven story that continues Gadd’s exploration of masculinity and social divide.
The buzz around Half Man comes with a nod to Gadd’s breakout moment when fans chased down the “real” version of Martha from Baby Reindeer, thrusting Fiona Harvey into the spotlight. While she was never convicted of stalking Gadd, Netflix’s leadership reportedly pressed for a court order over the alleged harassment. Harvey later filed a $170 million lawsuit against Netflix over the series, a case that has been pending in the United States with little fresh news since June 2025.
In Half Man, Gadd is joined by Jamie Bell, who plays Niall, with Gadd’s Ruben cast as his former best friend. The trailer frames their teenage rivalry as a catalyst for grown-up tensions: Ruben is impulsive and volatile, while Niall remains more withdrawn. As adults, Ruben reemerges at Niall’s wedding and seizes a microphone to tell a story about his old friend, hinting at a shared past rife with conflict.
The footage also teases a troubling arc: Niall is shown being bullied at school, and Ruben appears to get into serious trouble, including an incident with a boxcutter that seems linked to Niall. A present-day arrest of Ruben and a visit from Niall to his cell deepen the sense that the two men’ s relationship has spiraled since their youth. A line from Ruben—“You think I’m to blame for all your problems, you’ve wasted your whole life dancing to other people’s tunes instead of marching to the beat of your own drum”—signals a charged confrontation at the heart of the series.
As with Baby Reindeer, Half Man appears poised to interrogate big questions about masculinity and social class through the lens of two very different protagonists. The trailer suggests a narrative that moves from adolescence to adulthood, weaving threads of violence, sexuality, and identity into a broader commentary.
Here’s the official synopsis as shared for Richard Gadd’s Half Man: “When Ruben turns up at Niall’s wedding three decades later, everything feels off. He’s on edge, unsettled, not himself. A sudden explosion of violence then sends their lives spiraling from the eighties to the present day.”
Half Man premieres weekly in the United States on HBO starting April 23, with the UK rollout following on BBC iPlayer from April 24. In the meantime, consider exploring our list of the most anticipated TV shows of 2026.