Comedy-drama The Dry is set to stream on ITVX from later this month.
The eight-episode series, which is set in Dublin, stars Ciarán Hinds, Roisin Gallagher, Pom Boyd, Siobhán Cullen, Adam J. Richardson, Moe Dunford and Eoin Duffy.
It is written by Nancy Harris and directed by Paddy Breathnach.
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Emma Norton and Michael Dawson are executive producers of the series, which originally went out on BritBox.
The Dry will stream on ITVX from March 23.
The series description says: "From the producers of Normal People, this moving comedy-drama is an irreverent, sharp and funny depiction of a family in various forms of denial. The story centres on 35-year-old Shiv [Sheridan], the eldest daughter, as she returns to Ireland for her grandmother’s wake, taking a break from London and her ‘career’ (with a small ‘c’) in art.
"Shiv is six months sober, and it is fair to say her life is not going as planned. Shiv’s family – who have never really dealt with or talked about the damage caused by the sudden death of her adored elder brother, not to mention her parents’ failing marriage or Shiv’s own chaotic behaviour – are wary of having her back.
"To make matters worse there’s also her charmer of an ex-boyfriend Jack, who has the uncanny knack of always appearing when she’s at her most vulnerable. His charming presence reminds Shiv of the excitement and thrill of excess from her youth – to call him a trigger would be an understatement.
"Can Shiv come to terms with her true addiction and the realities of her life, amid a dysfunctional yet loveable family who are each individually facing their own demons?"
Belfast actress Roisin Gallagher, who plays Shiv Sheridan - the black sheep of the family, described her character.
She said: "Shiv has been in London for ten years and she’s kind of got to a point in her life where changes need to be made. She feels compelled to come home. I don’t think she’s coming back with her tail between her legs but there’s a certain element of ‘I’m not where I thought I would be’ in her 35-year-old life - where she’s not married and she doesn’t have the career that she wants or that she thought she might have had.
"I hope a lot of people will relate to that idea of what society tells us we should be at this stage in our lives, maybe particularly for a female. So Shiv has come home on a mission to find truth, healing and a place of belonging. I don’t know that she really feels like she belongs anywhere when we first meet her, which is a really interesting energy space for me to act within — it’s a person who maybe doesn’t quite know where they should be."
Roisin added: "As the series progresses we see her unpick her cobweb of trauma - the things she feels she needs to deal with in order to find this truth. Ironically, that generally tends to be about everybody else rather than herself. She does come to a point in the series, which I think is brilliantly done, when she realises it’s actually up to her a little bit more."
NI actor Ciarán Hinds plays Tom Sheridan, Shiv's father - a man of few words, who has recently retired and found work as a delivery driver.
He believes in keeping himself occupied and having a purpose.
Ciarán said: "Tom. He's just a regular guy who is trying to keep up this family and the mad stuff that happens in there. They're quite a feisty family. Three kids and they're all in their mid 20s and their mid 30s. He was hoping that they’d all be sorted out and grown up by now so that he could have just quietly got on with his life. But that proves not to be the case.
"He’s quite a straightforward guy but he has his own problems. They lost a child him and his wife [Pom Boyd] six or seven years ago. They both suffered terribly, but he has managed to pull himself out of the grief. The problem is his wife is still stuck there. Tom is kind of worn out now trying to raise her back up, back into life sometime.
"That is why he's having an open relationship with his acupuncturist. But meanwhile, with the kids, he's got the three children and he’s at a moment where he says, ‘Well, you accuse me of having a midlife crisis. But in fact, I’m having an old life crisis because you're in the middle of your life.
"You may not recognise it because you think you're young.’ He’s trying to point out that he's only human, and that he does love them all. But they're all quite challenging. I think at base he's a good-hearted man, just trying to make it all work."
He also spoke about his time filming the series.
Ciarán added: "I haven't filmed in Ireland until this year since about 2009. I've done theatre and I know that the industry here has been building up very strongly, north and south. Weirdly a lot of the work you do as a film actor is about going away: you go away to location, and I’ve been all over the place.
"But for some reason, even though my home isn't in Dublin, I felt like I was coming home to work on this. Paddy Breathnach, I know him as a filmmaker. So that attracted me very much to the project. And then they gave me the stuff to read and I thought was fantastic.
"Written by Nancy Harris… there's so much energy in it. There’s a delicate tone that we have to achieve between the humour and the truth and the issues but the balance is perfect."
The Dry will stream on ITVX from March 23.
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