Leonard And Hungry Paul | Preview (BBC Two)

The show is based on the award-winning, best-selling novel of the same name by Rónán Hession and has been adapted by writers Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson. The show boasts top tier cast including Alex Lawther, Laurie Kynaston, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell and Julia Roberts as the narrator.

The feel-good series follows two board-gaming friends in their thirties; Leonard, a ghost writer of children’s encyclopaedias, and Hungry Paul, a part-time postal worker who still lives at home, who meander through leafy suburban life finding solace in their quiet routines.

The unexpected death of Leonard’s mother, the approaching wedding of Hungry Paul’s sister and a tentative new romance for Leonard, prompts both men to meet a world that is suddenly wider and full of unfamiliar possibilities.

The award winning director Andrew Chaplin (Alma’s Not Normal, Smoggie Queens) says about the show: “At a time when most shows involve dragons, detectives, or existential dread, Leonard and Hungry Paul takes a slower route - through kindness, the quiet gravity of small things, and the occasional game of backgammon. Proof that not all heroes shout - some just know when to stay quiet.”

Episode 1: From the moment he was born, it was just Leonard and his mother against the world. An imaginative, friendless child, Leonard was never lonely and even as a man in his thirties, he was content living with mother, ghostwriting children’s encyclopaedias and regularly playing board games with his best friend Hungry Paul. That is, until his mother suddenly dies.

Leonard faces the world with fresh eyes, aware that if he’s not careful, he’s going to end up living a small life of complete insignificance. But just how does he expand his world?

Hungry Paul’s own universe is exactly the size he wants it to be but his mother Helen insists that he attend the local hospital with her as a volunteer visitor. Hungry Paul struggles with small talk, but after a minor upset with another patient, he sits in companionable silence with Mrs Hawthorn.

Meanwhile Leonard meets a new colleague Shelley, an office fire warden who makes Leonard smile for the first time in weeks.

Leonard And Hungry Paul lands Friday 17th October on BBC iPlayer and airs the following week on BBC Two.