CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR CHANNEL 4'S THE BIRTH OF DANIEL F HARRIS

Lewis Gribben, Samuel Bottomley, Lisa McGrillis and Rory Keenan join Channel 4’s drama The Birth of Daniel F Harris.

Lewis Gribben (Deadwater Fell, Limbo, Get Duked!) stars as Danny, an eighteen-year-old whose mother was killed in a car accident when he was a baby. Overwhelmed with grief, his dad Steve, played by Rory Keenan (The Duchess, War & Peace, Peaky Blinders) bought a house in the middle of nowhere and locked Danny in, telling him the world outside was full of monsters waiting to take him away. Just like they took his mum.

For eighteen years they lived a happy existence together, listening to Benny Goodman records and watching old movies with no sad endings. And that’s how Danny grew up. It was all he knew, all he needed - him and his dad against the world. But when Danny turns eighteen, everything he’s ever known explodes in an instant.

Danny is taken to live with his well-meaning but stressed-out aunt Sue, played by Lisa McGrillis (Mum, Deadwater Fell, No Offence) and cousin Aaron, played by Samuel Bottomley (Everyone’s Talking About Jamie, Ackley Bridge, Ladhood). Aaron is a shy and awkward eighteen-year-old, desperately in need of a friend, but his very strange cousin definitely wasn’t who he had in mind.

While Aaron grew up watching YouPorn and YouTube, Danny was raised on a diet of The Lavender Hill Mob, Brief Encounter and The Red Shoes. Living with Danny is a massive eye-opener for Aaron, seeing the world through his strange cousin’s eyes. And slowly, tentatively, both Danny and Aaron start to emerge from their shells together - as Danny tries to find the real monster, the one that killed his mother…

This is an utterly compelling, surprising and darkly comic story that follows a young man finding his place in a world he never knew existed.