{"id":879390,"date":"2026-09-04T06:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879390\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:38:12","slug":"downton-abbey-and-unforgotten-stars-in-first-look-at-irish-true-crime-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879390\/","title":{"rendered":"Downton Abbey and Unforgotten stars in first look at Irish true-crime drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans have been given a first look at The Murder of Mr Moonlight, which is set to star the likes of Brendan Coyle, Sin\u00e9ad Keenan and Owen McDonnell.<\/p>\n

The RT\u00c9 series, which will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, dramatises the real-life 2011 disappearance and subsequent high-profile murder trial of Irish DJ Bobby Ryan, who was affectionately known as Mr Moonlight due to his profession.<\/p>\n

The new series is based on Catherine Fegan\u2019s book The Murder of Mr Moonlight<\/a>, alongside extensive research and interviews, and \u201cexplores the relationships, secrets and tensions that lay behind a case which captivated Ireland for more than a decade”, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n

Coyle (Downton Abbey) stars as Ryan alongside Keenan (Unforgotten), who appears as Bobby\u2019s girlfriend Mary, while Owen McDonnell (Bad Sisters) stars as Patrick Quirke, who was found guilty of Ryan’s murder in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Brendan Coyle as Bobby Ryan in The Murder of Mr Moonlight.\u00a0Channel 4<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, behind the camera, the series is adapted for television by writer Malcolm Campbell (What Richard Did) and produced by Conker Pictures (part of Banijay UK) and Samson Films with additional funding from Screen Ireland.<\/p>\n

Campbell said in a statement: “I was drawn to this story because of the people caught up in it, the human factor, the cost of it all. At its heart are real people whose lives were profoundly affected by these events.<\/p>\n

“Our responsibility has been to approach the process with care, sensitivity and rigorous research, while exploring the relationships and circumstances that made this case so compelling.”<\/p>\n

Kim Varvell and Tommy Bulfin, executive producers at Conker Pictures, added: “The Murder of Mr Moonlight is one of the most significant crime stories in recent Irish history. Our ambition has always been to move beyond the headlines and explore the human story behind the case.<\/p>\n

“At the heart of the story is Bobby Ryan, whose life was tragically cut short. However even after his death his story was overshadowed by the media\u2019s fascination with Pat Quirke and his former lover Mary Lowry. This drama intends to give a voice back to Bobby and his family.”<\/p>\n

Further details will be announced in due course.<\/p>\n

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Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans have been given a first look at The Murder of Mr Moonlight, which is set to star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-879390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}