BBC/HBO
Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has returned to the small screen after two years with his new show for BBC and HBO, Half Man, and the intense first trailer gives audiences a glimpse of what to expect from the new drama.
Gadd exploded in pop culture when fans of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer went hunting to find the real version of Martha, ultimately forcing a Scottish woman named Fiona Harvey into the spotlight. Although she was never convicted of stalking Gadd, Netflix boss Benjamin King said she received a court order over the alleged harassment.
Harvey later filed a $170 million lawsuit against the streamer over the award-winning series, the case is still pending in the US, and there has been little news about it since June 2025.
Now, Gadd is ready to deliver his latest work, Half Man, for HBO and BBC – and the first trailer promises an intense new story in the same vein as Baby Reindeer.
Richard Gadd and Jamie Bell lead HBO’s Half Man
First trailer for HBO's Half Man, from the creator of Baby Reindeer
Starts streaming April 23pic.twitter.com/RseQgXEZaJ
— ScreenTime (@screentime) April 7, 2026
The first footage from the series shows Richard Gadd as Ruben opposite Jamie Bell as Niall, and the pair were once unlikely best friends as teenagers, as they couldn’t be more different. Ruben is violent and outgoing, but Niall is quieter and keeps to himself. As adults, Ruben shows up at Niall’s wedding and grabs a microphone to “tell you about Niall Kennedy.”
From there, the intense footage shows the pair growing up side-by-side, with Niall getting bullied at school and Ruben seemingly getting arrested for using a boxcutter in an incident involving Niall. It also shows Ruben getting arrested in the present day after some kind of violent incident, with Niall visiting him in custody.
Ruben tells his former friend “You think I’m to blame for all your problems, you’ve wasted your whole life dancing to other people’s tunes instead of marching to the beat of your own drum.”
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There are also shots that imply that Niall has struggled with his sexuality growing up, while Ruben is shown picking up an unknown woman and kissing her on her doorstep.
BBC/HBO
It’s clear that like Baby Reindeer, the show will use its overarching story to analyze deeper themes about masculinity and class culture through the lens of two very different characters.
Here’s the synopsis for Richard Gadd’s Half Man: “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.”
Half Man will air weekly in the US from April 23 on HBO, and from April 24 on BBC iPlayer in the UK. Until then you can discover our most anticipated TV shows of 2026.
