Michelle Fairley and Conor MacNeill join adaptation of Michael Magee’s Close To Home

Michelle Fairley and Conor MacNeill have joined the cast of Channel 4’s upcoming adaptation of Michael Magee’s debut novel Close To Home.

Fairley is best known for her roles in Game of Thrones and Gangs of London, while MacNeill previously starred in Industry.

They join previously announced cast members such as Anthony Boyle, known for House of Guinness and Say Nothing, who will portray the main character, Sean. Jessica Reynolds, Seamus O'Hara and Oisín Thompson will also be part of the cast.

Filming has already wrapped in Belfast. The series is being produced by Element Pictures, the company behind Sally Rooney’s adaptation of Normal People and the Oscar-nominated Bugonia.

Magee is adapting his own novel for the screen, while Diarmuid Goggins will direct the series.

Set in 2013, Close To Home follows Sean, a working-class man in his early twenties living in Belfast. In the aftermath of the recession, Sean struggles to find work despite recently earning a degree in English. At the same time, both his family and the city around him continue to live with the impact of the Troubles. But after Sean violently assaults another man at a party, his already uncertain future begins to unravel even further.

Magee received widespread acclaim for the novel following its release and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

Speaking to Hot Press shortly after the publication of his debut, Magee reflected on the generation that grew up after the Troubles: “You had these massive promises being made about this young generation, who weren’t going to experience the things their parents did during that 30-year conflict. They were promised they would reap the spoils of peace, but as a friend of mine said recently, ‘What spoils and for who?’”