''Conversations with Friends'' is an Irish television serial based on the 2017 novel of the same name by the Irish author

Sally Rooney Sally Rooney (born 20 February 1991) is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published four novels: ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017), ''Normal People'' (2018), ''Beautiful World, Where Are You'' (2021), and ''Intermezzo (novel), Interm ...

. Developed by

Element Pictures Element Pictures is an Irish film studio, cinema and television production company with production and distribution credits in more than 30 films. as well as a number of television series. Element Pictures also had a film and television distrib ...

for

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

in association with

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, it is the second adaptation by this crew of a Rooney novel after ''

Normal People ''Normal People'' is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. ''Normal People'' is Rooney's second novel, published after '' Conversations with Friends'' (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a ...

'' in 2020. ''Conversations with Friends'' was first broadcast on 15 May 2022. The series received mixed reviews from critics.

Cast

Main

Alison Oliver Alison Oliver is an Irish actress. She is known for her debut role as Frances in the BBC Three and Hulu miniseries '' Conversations with Friends'' (2022), and she was named in '' Variety''s "10 actors to watch" in 2023. Early life and educa ...

as Frances Flynn *

Sasha Lane Sasha Bianca Lane (born September 29, 1995) is an American actress. She made her film debut in '' American Honey'' (2016), directed by Andrea Arnold, before portraying Hunter C-20 in the first season of the Disney+ television series ''Loki'', s ...

as Bobbi Connolly *

Joe Alwyn Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born 21 February 1991) is an English actor. Alwyn made his feature film debut as the titular character in Ang Lee's 2016 war drama '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'' and has since played roles in films such as '' The F ...

as Nick Conway *

Jemima Kirke Jemima Jo Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a British-American artist, actress and director. She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson in the 2012 HBO series '' Girls''. She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short '' ...

as Melissa Baines

Supporting

* Alex Murphy as Philip, Frances and Bobbi's friend * Caoimhe Coburn Gray as Aideen, Frances and Bobbi's friend * Justine Mitchell as Paula Flynn, Frances' mother *

Tommy Tiernan Tommy Tiernan (; born 16 June 1969) is an Irish comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for his stand-up career, hosting '' The Tommy Tiernan Show'' (2017–present) and playing Gerry in the sitcom '' Derry Girls'' (2018–2022). Early l ...

as Dennis Flynn, Frances' alcoholic father *

Kerry Fox Kerry Lauren Fox (born 30 July 1966) is a New Zealand actress. She came to prominence playing author Janet Frame in the movie '' An Angel at My Table'' directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and ...

as Valerie Taylor-Gates, Melissa's agent * Tadhg Murphy as Derek, a long time friend of Nick and Melissa * Sallay Garnett as Evelyn, Melissa and Nick's friend * Emmanuel Okoye as Andrew, Aideen's boyfriend

Episodes

Production

Development

In February 2020, it was announced that '' Conversations with Friends'' would be made into a 12-episode miniseries, and that most of the creative team behind the adaptation of Rooney's second novel, ''

'', including

, director

Lenny Abrahamson Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. He is best known for directing independent films ''Adam & Paul'' (2004), ''Garage (film), Garage'' (2007), ''What Richard Did'' (2012), ''Frank (film), Fra ...

, and co-writer

Alice Birch Alice Birch (born 1986) is a British playwright and screenwriter. Birch has written several plays, including ''Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.'' for which she was awarded the George Devine Award, George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwr ...

, would be returning for this adaptation. Mark O'Halloran, Meadhbh McHugh, and

Susan Soon He Stanton Susan Soon He Stanton is an American playwright, television writer, and screenwriter. Stanton was a producer and writer for HBO's ''Succession'', for which she won Emmy, WGA, and Peabody Awards. She has also written for '' The Baby'', '' Modern Lo ...

were added as writers, and Leanne Welham was added as a director.

Casting

The cast was announced in February 2021, with Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, Sasha Lane, and Alison Oliver as the book's main quartet.

Filming

Principal photography began in April 2021, in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Locations include Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and

Hvar Hvar (; Chakavian: ''Hvor'' or ''For''; ; ; ) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, located off the Dalmatian coast, lying between the islands of Brač, Vis (island), Vis and Korčula. Approximately long, with a high east–west ridge of M ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Cast and crew were on set in Bray, County Wicklow that July. The production included an

intimacy coordinator An intimacy coordinator is an occupation in the film and television industries. They are "an advocate, a liaison between actors and production, and a movement coach and/or choreographer in regards to nudity and simulated sex, and other intimate ...

Ita O'Brien Ita O’Brien is a British movement director and intimacy co-ordinator for film, TV and theatre. She has taught at some of Britain's leading drama schools, has published research and devises her own work. In 2017, O'Brien introduced the "Intim ...

Release

The series premiered/released on 15 May 2022, on

and

. It premiered on

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

on Wednesday May 18 with a feature-length episode.

Endeavor Content Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) is an American multinational film and television production and distribution company. Fifth Season has financed, produced and distributed TV series and films such as '' Severance'', ''Killing Eve'', '' The ...

will distribute the series internationally. As of May 30, 2023, the series was removed from the

streaming platform.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the limited series holds a 60% approval rating based on 58 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "'While the characters are unevenly compelling and the overlong plotting makes these ''Conversations'' often go in circles, this adaptation retains some of the observant wisdom that made

's novel shine." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the series has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{Sally Rooney 2022 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2020s British LGBTQ-related drama television series 2020s British television miniseries BBC television dramas BBC Three original programming Bisexuality-related television series Hulu original programming Television shows based on Irish novels Television shows filmed in Northern Ireland Television shows filmed in the Republic of Ireland Television shows filmed in Croatia