THE RACHEL INCIDENT: CHANNEL 4 ANNOUNCES DRAMA ADAPTATION OF CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE NOVEL

Channel 4 has commissioned an adaption of The Rachel Incident, from the New York Times bestselling novelist, podcaster and screenwriter Caroline O’Donoghue. The eight-part series will be produced by the award-winning Element Pictures (Normal People, POOR THINGS) and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group and Pageboy.

O’Donoghue has adapted from her brilliantly hilarious novel of the same name, collaborating with Jen Statsky, co-creator of the hit series, Hacks. The Rachel Incident is aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humour about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three…

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it is love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate, and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. 

Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork City, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them. When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards.

But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred's glamorous, well-connected wife Deenie. 

Caroline O’Donoghue, writer and creator said: “Like most authors I’ve always dreamed of having my work adapted for the screen, but never could have imagined a situation as dreamy as this. Channel 4 and Element have, between them, created some of the best relationship dramas on TV and I know they’ll do the same for Rachel...

"NBCUniversal have been stalwart collaborators since long before the book was even published, and I’m so grateful to them for setting me up with Jen Statsky who has been an incredible mentor to me as I embark on my first show. I’m incredibly lucky.”

Ollie Madden, Director of Film4 and Channel 4 Drama said: “Caroline’s adaptation of her brilliant novel, and her vision for a returning series, was that rare thing – undeniably funny, razor-sharp in its honesty and observation, but bursting with heart and genuine emotion. We’re also huge fans of Hacks, so to have Jen Statsky working side-by-side with Caroline is the icing on the cake. Together with our friends at Element, UCP and PageBoy, we know this team is going to make something extraordinary.”

Element Pictures said: "We have long been fans Caroline's work - The Rachel Incident is extraordinary in how it weaves smart, witty comedy with genuine moral dilemmas and pathos, and brings us right to the heart of an achingly funny and endearing friendship. It's a world that is both intrinsically Irish and one that we feel audiences all over will recognize and love. We're thrilled to be working with her and Jen Statsky alongside our brilliant partners at Pageboy, NBCUniversal and Channel 4 to bring these characters off the page and to screen."

Casting will be announced in due course.