Acorn TV to Premiere Limited Series 'Mayflies' This October
Tony Curran and Martin Compston in "Mayflies"
(Photo: Acorn TV)
Streamer Acorn TV has announced it will exclusively premiere the 2022 limited series Mayflies this October, a heartfelt exploration of male friendship and the lengths we're willing to go to for the people we care most about.
Based on Andrew O’Hagan’s bestselling (and award-winning!) 2020 novel of the same name, Mayflies is both an everyday tragedy and a meditation on the joys and costs of love. The limited series follows the story of Jimmy Collins (Martin Compston) and Tully Dawson (Tony Curran), who've been best friends since they first met and bonded over music and films in their small Scottish childhood town. Now, thirty years later, Tully has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has one final, shocking request for his lifelong friend: To help him die on his own terms.
Tully wants to end his life via assisted suicide in Switzerland and he wants Jimmy to be there to help him. Devastated, Jimmy must wrestle with this life-changing moral dilemma, and in the process, the two men reminisce about a magical teenage weekend in Manchester, where they made promises about how their lives were going to turn out.
Theirs is a friendship nurtured over the years and miles, bonded by a history of youthful glories, a passion for culture and a fierce determination not to end up like their fathers. But now, they must face the ultimate expression of their vow, testing their friendship, love, and loyalty to the limit.
Alongside Compston and Curran, the series' ensemble includes Ashely Jensen (Agatha Raisin) as Tully's girlfriend-turned-wife Anna, Tracy Ifeachor (Treason) as Jimmy's wife Iona, Rian Gordon (Karen Pirie) as young Jimmy and Tom Glynn-Carney (House of the Dragon) as young Tully.
(And just in case you're wondering about just how badly this heartrending tale is likely to destroy you emotionally, just remember that Curran also starred in the Doctor Who Season 5 episode about Vincent Van Gogh and start packing some tissues now.)
The series is written and adapted for TV by BAFTA Award-nominee Andrea Gibb (Elizabeth Is Missing), and directed by Peter Mackie Burns (Rialto). Executive producers are Gibbs, Claire Mundell, Gaynor Holmes, Gavin Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Adrian Burns and Mark Young. The producer is Brian Kaczynski.
Mayflies initially aired in the U.K. in December, 2022, to largely positive reviews, with critics praising its sensitive storytelling and the performances of Curran and Compston at its center.
The two-part limited series is set to premiere exclusively on Acorn TV on Monday, October 30.
