Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen will lead the TV adaptation of David Nicholls’ “You Are Here,” which has landed a series greenlight from Starz and BBC.
Foy (“All of Us Strangers,” “The Crown”) and Macfadyen (“Succession,” “Death by Lightning”) will lead the romance series as Marnie and Michael, respectively, who are paired together by a mutual friend to embark on a coast-to-coast walk across the English countryside. “Against the odds, they end up on the brink of a relationship that neither was looking for, but which might be exactly the one they both need,” the official logline reads.
The romance series is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholls, who is best known for writing “One Day,” which resulted in two adaptations, a 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess and a 2024 TV show from Netflix starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall.
Nicholls penned the eight-episode series, which will be directed by Lenny Abrahamson (“Room,” “Normal People”), who re-teams with “Normal People” producer Element Pictures, a Fremantle company, which produces the series.
Nicholls and Abrahamson serve as executive producers alongside Foy and MacFadyen, as well as Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe and Emma Norton for Element Pictures and Jonny Richards and Anna Ferguson for the BBC. The series, which is produced by Clare Shepherd, will be filmed in the Lake District and around Manchester.
“I’m so delighted to be working on ‘You Are Here’ with Element, the BBC, Starz and Lenny, whose work I’ve admired for many years. And Matthew and Claire are both just dream casting, wonderful in comedy and drama, so detailed and thoughtful and sympathetic,” Nicholls said in a statement. “The intention with the novel was to write a close-up study of a relationship, but set against this magnificent landscape, and that’s our ambition here too; to make something both intimate and epic, funny and dramatic, a romantic comedy with real emotion. We can’t wait to bring Marnie and Michael’s journey to the screen.”
“As a huge admirer of David’s writing, I’m delighted to be collaborating with him to bring ‘You Are Here’ to the screen,” Abrahamson said. “The novel is such a beautiful love story – funny, profound and ultimately deeply hopeful. I’m also extremely excited to have Claire and Matthew, two actors I hugely admire, playing Michael and Marnie.”
“‘You Are Here’ is disarming, sly and deeply romantic. It captures something true and aching about the way we love now,” Kathryn Busby, Starz president of original programming, said in a statement. “Together with our partners at the BBC, we are thrilled to be working with the dream team of David, Lenny, Claire, Matthew and Element Pictures to bring this beautiful love story to life. It’s a perfect fit for our Starz audience.”
