Netflix announces cast for adaptation of Dublin-set Marian Keyes novel

Netflix has announced that Grown Ups, an 8-part drama series based on the best-selling novel by Marian Keyes, has started filming in and around Dublin.

Set in south county Dublin, Grown Up follows the chaotic lives of the Casey clan, a noisy tight-knit Irish family, who are bound together by a tangled web of loyalty, resentment, money, memory and love.

When the rock of the family, the ‘good son’, dies unexpectedly, it sets off a seismic emotional reckoning.

Over the course of the next year, the Caseys will fall in and out of love, confront old wounds and make some new ones. They’ll be forced to face not only their grief, but the exhausting, relentless, and often ridiculous struggle of being an adult. Despite their age and responsibilities, the Caseys are far from grown up

Marian Keyes said: “The filming of Grown Ups has begun in Dublin and it feels like a succession of dreams come true.

On 15/10/2020 at the height of Covid, I had a zoom call with Samantha Strauss from Picking Scabs (a See-Saw Films label). She was on Australia’s Gold Coast adapting Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers. I was closeted in my Dublin bedroom, once again in lockdown. Sam had optioned the book (Grown Ups) six months earlier but this was our first time to speak; our emotional and creative connection was immediate. Her questions were relevant and intelligent and she was adamant that the show needed to be shot in Ireland.  Countless books are optioned and very few ever make it to the screen. (I’ve been there many times lol.) Funding is usually the biggest challenge. But from that first conversation I believed Sam and I trusted her. Then Netflix came on board and again it was so easy to like and trust the people involved. (For a long time the only people I met related to this production were women). Then casting began and it was above and beyond my wildest dreams: what an incredibly talented group of people. Likewise the two directors and the hardworking crew.

Being part of this, seeing it all come together has been so exciting and so much fun. I’m honoured by the hard work and commitment of everyone involved, I’m beyond grateful for all the care that’s been taken with my characters and most of all, I’m enormously proud.”

Cast includes:

Sarah Greene  (Bad Sisters, Normal People) will play Jessie

Barry Ward (Bad Sisters, The End of the F***ing World) will play Johnny

Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Get Away) will play Cara

Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy, Misfits) will play Liam

Amy-Leigh Hickman (YOU, Our Girl) will play Nell

Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty, Ridley) will play Canice

Sinéad Cusack (Marcella, MotherFatherSon) will play Rose

Karin Hanczewski will play Ed (Call My Agent: Berlin, Tatort)