Sky announces The Lovers, a new Sky Original drama starring Johnny Flynn and Roisin Gallagher

Darkly comic romantic drama begins filming in Belfast at the end of the month

Written by David Ireland and produced by Drama Republic in association with Sky Studios

Sky today announces the start of production for upcoming Sky Original drama, The Lovers, starring Johnny Flynn (Beast, Emma) and Roisin Gallagher (The Fall, The Dry).

The series follows Janet (Gallagher), a foul-mouthed, hilarious, Belfast supermarket worker who couldn't give a shit about anything much at all, including her life, and Seamus (Flynn) a handsome, self-centred, political broadcaster with what looks to be a perfect London life and a celebrity girlfriend.

So when Seamus unexpectedly drops into Janet's world (literally over the wall and into her backyard) they instantly clash - and yet also find themselves inextricably drawn to each other...

Set in Belfast, this is a sexy, funny, fight-y love story about two people who appear to be utterly wrong for each other - yet may just be utterly right.

The series also stars Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones, Holding) as Janet's supermarket boss, Philip.

Produced by Drama Republic, in association with Sky Studios, the new 6 x 30 series is about love, connection and finding your soulmate in the most unlikely of places.

Written by award winning playwright David Ireland (Cyprus Avenue, Ulster American) and directed by BAFTA winning Justin Martin (Together, Prima Facie), the darkly comic, romantic drama, will be coming to Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in 2023.

Liz Lewin & Manpreet Dosanjh, Executive Producers, Sky Studios: "We can't wait to start filming The Lovers and see our two brilliant leads, Johnny and Roisin, bring our love-struck odd couple to life. David has written the most unique, funny and heart-warming scripts and we look forward to shooting against the iconic backdrops of Belfast and London."

Roanna Benn and Rebecca de Souza, Executive Producers, Drama Republic, added: "We are so excited that David's beautifully crafted, romantic and subversive story is being brought to life by such a brilliant team and cast - with the hugely talented Justin Martin at the helm."

The series was commissioned by Gabriel Silver, Director of Commissioning for Drama at Sky Studios for Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content at Sky UK. Roanna Benn and Rebecca de Souza are executive producers for Drama Republic, with commissioning editors Liz Lewin and Manpreet Dosanjh as executive producers for Sky Studios. Hannah Pescod also serves as executive producer, with Chris Martin as producer. The Lovers is written by David Ireland and directed by Justin Martin.

NBCUniversal Global Distribution handles international sales on behalf of Sky Studios.

About Sky

Sky is Europe's leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation. Across six countries, we connect our 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content. 

Following the launch of Sky Glass, we now offer customers our strongest ever line-up of products and services. As well as the new streaming TV with Sky inside and everything integrated, customers can enjoy the award-winning Sky Q with all your favourite channels and apps in one place, and with Sky Go you can now access an even better experience on your devices. Sky TV has new channels, new shows and new deals with Peacock, Paramount+ and more. Sky Mobile was voted Best Pay Monthly and Best Value Pay Monthly network by Uswitch, and with Sky Broadband we're offering our fastest speeds yet.

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years alone. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library.

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