Take a look above at the official trailer for Small Town, Big Story, an upcoming comedy-drama series starring Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, Good Girls) and Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon, The Death of Stalin). The series was created by Chris O’Dowd, perhaps best known for acting roles in Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd, and The Sapphires. He also co-created, co-wrote, and starred in the Irish series Moone Boy.
Set in the fictional Irish border town of Drumbán, Small Town, Big Story follows Wendy Patterson (Hendricks), a high-powered Hollywood producer returning home with a major fantasy TV production. The shoot is meant to revitalise the struggling town, but instead, it dredges up long-buried tensions and threatens to expose a decades-old secret.
Considine plays Séamus Proctor, the town’s beloved doctor and Wendy’s former flame, who soon finds himself at the centre of the chaos. His personal life is already on shaky ground—his marriage is crumbling, and his children are forging their own paths—but the film crew’s arrival only adds to the turmoil.
OTHER POSTS:
The ensemble cast includes Eileen Walsh, David Rawle, Patrick Martins, and O’Dowd himself as Dr Jack E McCarthy, a writer whose novel serves as the basis for Wendy’s TV series. The town is filled with quirky, flawed characters, all dealing with personal struggles as the production upends their way of life.
“I’d been looking for something to set in the northwest of Ireland,” O’Dowd told The Irish News. “Then a producer friend got in touch. 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.”
On managing to get Hendricks on board, O’Dowd told Variety that while she was on his radar, he never thought he’d actually land her for the role—until fate intervened. “This was the first time I’d worked with her, but I was a huge fan. Myself and my wife were big, big Mad Men fans. We were casting this and she had popped into my head as somebody who would be great, but I thought, well, we’ll never get her, and I don’t know her. And then I was on a job somewhere, and I was talking to my wife on the phone, and she said, ‘You’ll never believe who was in the kitchen this morning.’ It was Christina Hendricks. They had this fashion connection. And so we ended up having a dinner, and I pitched her the show.”
The series, commissioned by Sky Studios for Sky, is produced by Playground, FilmNation Entertainment and HotCod Productions in association with Sky Studios.
Small Town, Big Story premieres on 27 February, streaming in Australia on Binge (also available on Hubbl) and airing on Showcase. In the UK and Ireland, it will be available on Sky and streaming service NOW.
