Starring Richard Gadd and Jamie Bell, 'Half Man' is a 6 part drama starting 24th April on BBC iPlayer and also airing on BBC One and BBC Scotland. HBO will air the show in the USA.

Niall and Ruben are brothers. Not related in blood but the closest you can get. One, fierce and loyal. The other, meek and mild-mannered. Inseparable youth. Brought into each other’s lives through death and circumstance, all they have is each other…

But when Ruben turns up at Niall’s wedding three decades later, everything seems different. He is on edge. Shifty. Not acting like himself. And soon, an explosion of violence takes place which catapults us back through their lives, from the eighties to the present day. Capturing 30 years in the lives of these broken men, Half Man explores brotherhood, violence, and the intense fragility of male relationships. After all, when things fall apart… it is sometimes the closest relationships which break the hardest.

This sounds great tbf!

Starts this week. Here's the trailer.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a71081680/half-man-review/

This has me even more hyped!

Really looking forward to this on Friday!

Watched episode one and it is brilliant! Brutal, gritty and filled with characters you can instantly get behind. Very intrigued for where this will go, it has me guessing!

I keep seeing clips of this on my reels and I’m intrigued! Will be giving this a go.

This is absolutely incredible, episode 2 is so compelling. I have so many questions and cannot wait to see more of it.

Alby going back to Niall is a swerve I wasn't expecting after what happened. I am looking forward to seeing the initial aftermath be unpacked there.

Is this all on the iplayer?

13 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Is this all on the iplayer?

It airs weekly, new episode every Friday on iPlayer

I’ll wait until it’s all done then!

Hmmm. I've watched both episodes so far and I'm not sure I'm on board with it. It has flashes of potential but for me it has constantly grim undertones to it.

My thoughts but does contain a couple of spoilers so...

It's 2026 and I'm not sure I'm here for a drama about LGBTQ+ characters being subservient to straight thugs. Each episode has a 'shocking' moment that sort of comes pretty much out of nowhere and at the moment I feel it's just style over substance with things shoehorned in. The sex scene in episode one was just grim and incredibly uncomfortable to watch. But it's the attack at the end of the second episode that has really irritated me, introducing a self assured gay character just to have him beaten to a pulp seemingly just to further a plot dynamic between two other characters can f*ck right off. It wasn't even a scene to highlight the types of attacks that gay people had to endure, it was an attack all about the character attacking him.

Episode 2 was extremely brutal. I could barely watch the final 10 minutes or so :(

On 02/05/2026 at 21:56, dandy* said:

Hmmm. I've watched both episodes so far and I'm not sure I'm on board with it. It has flashes of potential but for me it has constantly grim undertones to it.

My thoughts but does contain a couple of spoilers so...

It's 2026 and I'm not sure I'm here for a drama about LGBTQ+ characters being subservient to straight thugs. Each episode has a 'shocking' moment that sort of comes pretty much out of nowhere and at the moment I feel it's just style over substance with things shoehorned in. The sex scene in episode one was just grim and incredibly uncomfortable to watch. But it's the attack at the end of the second episode that has really irritated me, introducing a self assured gay character just to have him beaten to a pulp seemingly just to further a plot dynamic between two other characters can f*ck right off. It wasn't even a scene to highlight the types of attacks that gay people had to endure, it was an attack all about the character attacking him.

I think you're spot on, I feel exactly the same way. The second episode really pissed me off tbh. Going to try one more episode but might give up after that.

OK I watched episode three and I'm so torn by it. It continues to frustrate me for reasons stated earlier by dandy* but at the same time I did find that episode really tense and quite gripping. I guess I'll be persevering with it to my own annoyance.