Small Town, Big Story: Chris O’Dowd’s out-of-this-world comedy on Sky Max

We’ve all got personal lists of great comedies we argue are “up there”. But the quality of the 2012 comedy Moone Boy isn’t up for debate. Telling the story of Martin Moone (David Rawle) who relies on the help of his imaginary friend Sean (Chris O’Dowd) as he deals with life in small-town Ireland, it was delightful, with a machine gun-like spray of gags, brilliant characters and a touch of whimsy.

We bring this up for two reasons: to get people to watch Moone Boy again and because its writer and star, Chris O’Dowd, is back with a new comedy, this time set in a village full of secrets on the border of Ireland… and another world.

In Small Town, Big Story, Hollywood TV exec Wendy Patterson (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) returns to the Irish border town Drumbán to choose the final filming location for her big-budget TV show I Am Celt – and to expose a decades-old secret she shares with local doctor Séamus Proctor (Paddy Considine, House Of The Dragon).

Take a look at the wild trailer below.

Alongside Hendricks and Considine, Small Town, Big Story also features a big cast including Eileen Walsh (Catastrophe), Patrick Martins (The Confessions Of Frannie Langton), Leia Murphy (Video Nasty) and David Wilmot (Station Eleven). Moone Boy’s David Rawle also stars in this series as Séamus’s son, Sonny, while O’Dowd plays the I Am Celt author Jack E. McCarthy.

Small Town Big Story premieres on Thursday 27 February on Sky Max HD (CH 111), with weekly episodes airing every Thursday at 9pm.

Want to know more about the show? We’ve got the answers to some of the pressing questions you might have, plus take a look at this starry cast.

Chris O’Dowd: “[It’s] a series about this small town in rural Ireland where a big epic Hollywood-style production comes to film. It’s about the ramifications that it has on the characters from the town. And a secret that two of those characters have been keeping for over 20 years.”

Christina Hendricks: “I play Wendy, a film producer who is coming back to her hometown. I bring this big Hollywood production to this small place that’s never experienced anything like this.”

Paddy Considine: “I play Séamus. It's a story about a young couple, Wendy and Séamus, who are abducted on the eve of the millennium. This very strange experience profoundly affects their lives. It sets them on two different paths in life as Wendy leaves the town because of the event and Séamus stays.”

Paddy: “When Wendy returns to Drumbán 20 years later, it stirs up a lot of anxiety and panic for Séamus because he’s hiding so much about his life and what happened to them both back then. Her presence forces him to confront his past and the impact it has on his present. Their relationship evolves as the truth is revealed, bringing them closer together.”

Christina: “In the present day, Séamus has written Wendy off. He has completely dismissed that this event ever happened and how he betrayed her in front of her family and the whole town and made her a laughing stock. There are all these unresolved feelings between them, and this connected experience when you share something with someone that no one else has.”

Chris: “I'd been looking for something to set in the north-west of Ireland. Then a producer friend got in touch with me. They had been watching something I had written and had enjoyed it, so he asked me if I wanted to work together. He was working in Northern Ireland when they were filming Game Of Thrones, and we ruminated on the phone about what a fun story it would be, one about a small town and what it might look like after a big show production had left. That was the initial idea. Then in development, I did a rewind and thought about what that town would look like beforehand too.

“I had also just reread a play called The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It's a complex revenge story which is an interesting journey for its lead character to go on. I wanted these two ideas meshed, those two elements, and then I thought it also needed a secret that characters could keep or not keep. That’s the part about aliens, which has always been a big part of my experiences in Boyle anyway. Even when I created Moone Boy we had an episode about an alien – Boyle was the UFO capital of Europe. I feel the idea is all in those things together.”

Chris: “I haven’t lived in Ireland for around 20 years and when you come back, you realise it’s going through this interesting cultural renaissance. The language is coming to the forefront, Irish unity is being talked about. There is a lot of mythological talk. It’s like a return to these innate qualities that we have lost in the last two to three centuries. You can see this in Irish writing all this century so far: writer Kevin Barry looking at fine lines between death and life – I think there's something in the alien draw of that writing. The artist Blindboy has a theory that folklore is somehow related to biodiversity. Where the land is trying to tell you stories so that we treat it better. I think there is a truth in that. So, there is a lot of myth that is woven into Small Town Big Story and we have ensured that it has some kind of basis in mythological fact.

“The characters in the Hollywood film that rolls into town, ‘An Dagda’ and ‘Brigid’, are all real mythological beings, ‘An Dagda’ being this Irish mythological father-figure god of fertility and agriculture. As you see in the series, the film production messes them around for commercial value. It is an interesting thing to explore, this distant past and the future interpretation of it at the same time.”

Chris: “When I was writing it, it was the build-up to the US congressional hearings on UFO sightings. It came and went, and no one really cared. A lot of the evidence in the hearings included things like ‘We think they are here…’ It was all very mad. But it just came and went. No one seems to care anymore. I think aliens are fun. They work as you can be the most trustworthy person in the village, aka Séamus, and he is going to tell you the most unlikely thing.”

Paddy: “I’ve always been fascinated by this stuff since I was a kid. There’s a lot happening around these themes now, with more disclosure and admittance. It’s interesting how the idea of unidentified flying objects or extraterrestrials has become so commonplace that it’s not even shocking anymore. I find it all quite intriguing.”

Christina: “One thing I think is really funny is that this is a comedy, but we play it very, very seriously, which I think makes it even more funny. We have all the material to work with and we have made it into a real-life situation for the characters to find themselves in. There is the recurring dropping of birds from the sky at inopportune moments. The way that it happens and people’s reactions completely crack me up. For example, a large swan drops from the sky and just clobbers one of the characters. It is so out of the blue and so startling that watching it cracks me up every time!”

Paddy: “The last episode is particularly impactful and leaves the door open for more stories.”

Let’s run through some of the key cast members, and where else you watch them on Virgin TV…

A hometown girl made good. As a Hollywood executive, she returns to “save” Drumbán – the place she left aged 18 under something of a cloud – by choosing it as the primary location for her television series I Am Celt, a big-budget fantasy that plays fast and loose with Irish history and Celtic mythology. For Wendy, the prospect of coming home is daunting but necessary.

Christina Hendricks was a model before she rose to fame as office manager Joan Holloway on the hit TV show Mad Men. Since then, she’s had roles in Drive alongside Ryan Gosling and eventually appeared in the actor’s directorial debut Lost River, plus Prime Video series The Romanoffs, reuniting with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.

Where to watch Christina Hendricks on Virgin TV:

• Mad Men – Find seasons 1-7 in Apps > Netflix

• Good Girls – Find seasons 1-4 in Apps > Netflix

• Drive – Find it in Apps > Netflix

• With Wine & Lovers – Find it in Apps > Prime Video

• American Woman – Find it in Apps > Prime Video

• The Romanoffs – Find season 1 in Apps > Prime Video

Drumbán’s trusted local GP, Séamus (or “Shamey” to friends and loved ones) is a pillar of the community and Wendy’s old flame. His wife Catherine is cheating on him, his son Sonny has just dropped out of medical school, and his daughter Joanne is itching for a bit of rebellion and might just find it when Hollywood comes to town. He’s an incredible trombone player, but he doesn’t know why.

Paddy Considine has been a stalwart of TV, movies, stage and even music videos with wide-ranging roles in the likes of Dead Man’s Shoes, Hot Fuzz, Peaky Blinders, House Of The Dragon and Coldplay’s “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face”.

Where to watch Paddy Considine on Virgin TV:

• The Death Of Stalin – Find it in Apps > Netflix

• Honour – Find it in Apps > Prime Video

• The World’s End – Find it in Apps > Prime Video

• Informer – Find it in Apps > BBC iPlayer

Jack’s name may be on the cover of Am I Celt but whether he wrote it will come into question, to Wendy’s dismay. It seems his chickens are coming home to roost.

Chris O’Dowd rose to prominence in Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd and has since had a string of big Hollywood roles, including Bridesmaids, The Sapphires, This Is 40 and more. He also created and starred in the award-winning Sky comedy, Moone Boy.

Where to watch Chris O’Dowd on Virgin TV:

• The IT Crowd – Find series 1-5 in Apps > Channel 4 and Apps > Netflix

• The Sapphires – Find it in Apps > Netflix

• The Incredible Jessica James – Find it in Apps > Netflix

• The Startling – Find it in Apps > Netflix

• The Cloverfield Paradox – Find it in Apps > Netflix

As a secondary school history teacher, Catherine takes issue with the TV show’s “creative licence” with Celtic folklore and especially the TV producer who has a secret history with her husband, Séamus. She’s been using a wheelchair for ten years, and the car accident that led to her situation is a closely guarded secret in the town. Or at least it was until Wendy came seeking revenge against Séamus.

Eileen Walsh has had a string of TV and film hits, including The Children Act, Small Things Like These, Patrick Melrose and Catastrophe.

Where to watch Eileen Walsh on Virgin TV:

• Catastrophe – Find series 1-4 in Apps > Netflix

• The Children Act – Find series 1-4 in Apps > Netflix

• Women On The Verge – Find series 1 in Apps > U

The story of the prodigal son told backwards. Sonny flew through his teens with the relentless promise of greatness. That sensation has dimmed since he ditched his university medical course and moved back home. Sonny is filling in for the receptionist at his father’s surgery, but rather than take an interest in medicine, he’d rather spend his time flirting with Shelly McGoldrick behind the White Ridge bar.

David Rawle is best known for his past collaboration alongside Chris O’Dowd in the sitcom Moone Boy as the lad with the imaginary friend. In 2014, he also provided the voice of Ben in the animated film, Song Of The Sea.

Where to watch David Rawle on Virgin TV:

• Song Of The Sea – Find it in Apps > Netflix

A location scout on I Am Celt, Jules just wants to do the best he can and someday attend the BAFTAs. Jules enthusiastically and earnestly gives his best effort. He quit his job at the Dublin Zoo after reading and loving the novel on which Wendy’s TV series is based. Now, he’s the fella you call when a production truck is parked in front of your driveway.

Patrick Martins is best known for the crime drama Redemption and the ITVX period drama The Confessions Of Frannie Langton. His films include Baltimore.

Where to watch Patrick Martins on Virgin TV:

• The Confessions Of Frannie Langton – Find series 1 in Apps > ITVX

Small Town, Big Story premieres on Thursday 27 February on Sky Max HD (CH 111) at 9pm, with weekly episodes airing every Thursday at the same time.

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