'Small Town, Big Story's' Trailer Brings Hollywood to Ireland

It's been a decade since Chris O'Dowd's coming-of-age story Moone Boy hit our screens, chronicling the story of a 12-year-old kid in early '90s Ireland and the imaginary friend that helps him survive life in a houseful of sisters. Based on its creator's memories of his Irish childhood, the show is slightly surreal, delightfully quirky, and very sweet. (It's also streaming on Prime Video and BritBox, if you've never seen it.)

O'Dowd is finally set to return with another equally offbeat project that's at least partially based on his own experiences. Sky Studio's Small Town, Big Story is a series that O'Dowd describes as Moone Boy's "cultural cousin". The show is set in the fictional town of Drumbán, a rural village on the border of Ireland full of misfits and oddballs. Chaos ensues when a big-budget Hollywood production rolls into town and shines an uncomfortable spotlight on a long-hidden secret. 

Christina Hendricks (The Buccaneers) stars as television producer Wendy Patterson, a successful Los Angeles producer who returns to her Irish hometown to make a TV show and finds herself caught up in elements from her past. Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon) plays Seamus Proctor, Drumbán’s local doctor and an established leader within the community. But his neat, carefully ordered life is turned upside down by the arrival of Wendy and her Hollywood team. And if the series trailer is anything to go by, the pair have some history between them. (And that history may or may not involve...aliens?)

Here's the series' synopsis. 

Wendy Patterson, a local girl who found success as a TV producer in Los Angeles returns to Drumbán after over 20 years, having left under something of a cloud. Back in the chaotic microcosm of Drumbán, this time with a film crew in tow, Wendy is caught between her past and her epic new production. 

Séamus Proctor is the local doctor, a respected pillar of the community. He has a neat and well-ordered life, or at least he thinks he does. Soon he will find himself in the eye of a storm as a celluloid circus descends, which threatens to blow open a secret he has been harbouring since the Millennium.

Alongside Hendricks and Considine, the series also stars Eileen Walsh (Say Nothing) as Seamus's schoolteacher wife, Catherine Proctor, with up-and-comers Leia Murphy (Video Nasty) and David Rawle (Storyland) as the Proctor siblings, Joanne and Sonny.  The ensemble also includes Patrick Martins (The Confessions of Frannie Langton), Evanne Kilgallon (Obituary), Andrew Bennett (The Quiet Girl), Ruth McCabe (Victoria & Abdul), David Wilmot (The Wonder), and Michèle Forbes (Bodkin). 

Supporting cast includes Sam C Wilson (Funny Woman), Peter McGann (The Apprentice), Ruth Codd (The Dry), Jamie Michie (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones), Clarke Peters (Eric), and American actor Tim Heidecker (Moonbase 8). 

Small Town, Big Story was created and written by O'Dowd, who also directed the series with Catherine Morshead, Mike Ahern, and Enda Loughman. "I bloody love television and am most engrossed by stories that bring the remarkable to the everyday," he said when the series was first announced. "I hope we’ve made a beautiful show that an audience will find funny and keep people on the edge of their seats…and beyond.”

The series is a Sky One Original produced by Playground, FilmNation Entertainment, and HotCod Productions in association with Sky Studios. Hendricks and O'Dowd are executive producers, along with Scott Huff and Colin Callender for Playground; Glen Basner, Milan Popelka, and Stefanie Berk for FilmNation Entertainment; and Alex Moody for Sky Studios. Liz Gill is the series producer. 

Small Town, Big Story will premiere in the U.K. on Sky and streaming service Sky NOW on Thursday, February 27, 2025. It does not yet have an American distributor, but given that Moone Boy found some success on Hulu, it feels like a natural guess for where this series may end up on our side of the pond.