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Hope Street is a British crime serial drama filmed in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland. The series premiered on BBC One Northern Ireland in November 2021, with later broadcast in the wider United Kingdom and North America in January 2022, on BBC One and Britbox, respectively. Hope Street stars an ensemble cast almost entirely collected from the local area, including Des McAleer, Amara Karan, Niall Wright, Kerri Quinn, Aaron McCusker, Niamh McGrady, Brid Brennan and Ciarán McMenamin. In April 2022, the show was renewed for a second series.[2]

Hope Street
Genre	Crime serial drama[1]
Created by	Paul Marquess Susanne Farrell
Starring	Des McAleer Amara Karan Niall Wright Kerri Quinn Aaron McCusker Niamh McGrady Brid Brennan Ciarán McMenamin
Music by	Justine Barker Anthony Eve
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producers	Paul Marquess Donna Wiffen
Production locations	Donaghadee, Northern Ireland
Cinematography	Nick Manley
Editor	Peter Williams
Running time	43-56 Minutes
Production company	Long Story TV
Release
Original network	BBC One Northern Ireland BBC One Britbox
Original release	24 November 2021 (2021-11-24) – present

Premise

The sudden arrival of DC Leila Hussain in the fictional Northern Irish town of Port Devine results in local residents pondering the reason behind her arrival. Inspector Finn O'Hare knows why Leila has transferred to Port Devine, but is keeping it to himself. On Leila's arrival to the town, Karan hinted: "The secret, the reason why she's been brought to Northern Ireland, is actually a matter of life-and-death".[3] Alongside following the events of the police department and the town's local residents, each episode features a self-contained crime story.[4]

Cast

• Des McAleer as Barry Pettigrew[5]
• Amara Karan as DC Leila Hussain[5]
• Niall Wright as PC Callum McCarthy[5]
• Kerri Quinn as Sergeant Marlene Pettigrew[5]
• Aaron McCusker as Clint Dunwoody[5]
• Niamh McGrady as Nicole Devine[5]
• Brid Brennan as Concepta O'Hare[5]
• Ciarán McMenamin as Inspector Finn O'Hare[5]

Development

Series co-creator and co-executive producer Paul Marquess stated that his aim whilst creating the series was to make a long-running, local drama. Due to being born in Belfast, he wanted to avoid the stereotypes that come with Northern Irish media portrayals, instead focusing on the "humour and warmth" of the area.[4] Marquess and colleague Susan Farrell decided that the series should not focus on serial killers or the Troubles, but instead on the resilience of the community in Northern Ireland. Another of Marquess' aims was to increase the amount of television productions in Northern Ireland, specifically since he had moved from the country to pursue a career in production in his youth. He and Farrell created a cast and crew almost entirely formed of local talent from in and around Donaghadee, where the series is filmed.[4] The 10-episode first series was funded by Northern Ireland Screen and it was confirmed that it would premiere on BBC One Northern Ireland in November 2021, as well as having a January 2022 broadcast on BBC One in the wider United Kingdom and Britbox in Northern America.[6]

Cast member McMenamin was helped with his research about the police by two schoolfriends who are part of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). After reading the scripts for the series, he was excited to be part of Hope Street due to its modern-day portrayal of his community. He said that his experiences on set are the happiest moments of his professional life, due to the locations they film on and the cast and crew. McMenamin explained: "The craic is a different level. When you live away, to come home and be surrounded by people just as sarcastic as you, makes getting out of bed in the morning a joy".[4] Quinn opined that it is refreshing for Hope Street not to mention the Troubles and appreciated that the scripts place a focal point on relationships and the small community of Port Devine.[4] Wright echoed her comments, feeling that the serial drama is "a completely different take" to other dramas on television at the time of transmission. He added that the series would have plenty of twists and cliffhangers and hoped that the series would be renewed for several further series.[7] English cast member Karan said that whilst filming for the series, the locals of Donaghadee were very proud of their town, but "went out of their way to make [her] feel welcome".[4] She added that she loved playing Leila even though she "sticks out in her new environment like a sore thumb".[4]

Episodes

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Episode 1"	Sean Glynn	Susanne Farrell	24 November 2021 (2021-11-24)
2	2	"Episode 2"	Sean Glynn	Jessica Lea	1 December 2021 (2021-12-01)
3	3	"Episode 3"	Dez McCarthy	Christine Murphy	8 December 2021 (2021-12-08)
4	4	"Episode 4"	Sean Glynn	Unknown	15 December 2021 (2021-12-15)
5	5	"Episode 5"	Dez McCarthy	Jessica Lea	22 December 2021 (2021-12-22)
6	6	"Episode 6"	Dez McCarthy	Unknown	5 January 2022 (2022-01-05)
7	7	"Episode 7"	Bruce Webb	Unknown	12 January 2022 (2022-01-12)
8	8	"Episode 8"	Dez McCarthy	Christine Murphy	19 January 2022 (2022-01-19)
9	9	"Episode 9"	Bruce Webb	Stuart Drennan	26 January 2022 (2022-01-26)
10	10	"Episode 10"	Dez McCarthy	Jessica Lea	2 February 2022 (2022-02-02)

Reception

On the Northern Irish BBC iPlayer, Hope Street received 1.6 million streams on the first five episodes of series one.[3] Stephen Patterson, writing for the Metro, gave the series four stars out of a possible five. He wrote that within minutes of the first episode, the community-driven aspect is established "incredibly well".[8] Patterson noted that the core cast are talented, praising McGrady specifically for "stealing every scene she's in".[8] He also praised the standalone stories in each episode, feeling that they raise important issues in ways that he did not expect from the series. He opined that Marquess had succeeded in his aims for the series to accurately portray Northern Ireland. He added that despite serial dramas such as Red Rock, The Bill and Holby City losing popularity, Hope Street "suggests that there is still something of an appetite for this kind of programming",[8] also hoping for more series of the programme.[8]

References

External links

• Hope Street at IMDb

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