{"id":542941,"date":"2026-04-21T14:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/542941\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:11:08","slug":"half-man-review-more-brave-brutal-blazing-tv-from-the-maker-of-baby-reindeer-television-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/542941\/","title":{"rendered":"Half Man review \u2013 more brave, brutal, blazing TV from the maker of Baby Reindeer | Television & radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have known for some time, I think, that men are not OK. Richard Gadd\u2019s new drama, conceived before his astounding, semi-autobiographical creation Baby Reindeer<\/a> sent his reputation stratospheric, and now broadcast in the slipstream of that success, is a fiercely intelligent, unforgiving, harrowing attempt to show us how and why.<\/p>\n

Half Man begins in the present, with two men circling each other in a dark barn. One, Niall (Jamie Bell), is in full Scottish wedding fig. The other, Ruben (Gadd), is stripped to the waist and has his hands wrapped like a sparring boxer. The fight that is surely about to come does not seem a fair one.<\/p>\n

Pulling no punches \u2026 Ruben (Richard Gadd, left) and Niall (Jamie Bell) in Half Man. Photograph: PA<\/p>\n

We then flash back over 30 years \u2013 and six brutal episodes \u2013 to piece together the men\u2019s shared story. We first meet gentle, bookish Niall at 15 (when he is played by Mitchell Robertson), as he is being horribly bullied \u2013 and let the unrelenting agony of this scene prepare you for everything to come \u2013 by other boys in his class. His day goes from bad to worse when he hears that Ruben (Stuart Campbell \u2013 like Robertson, turning in an altogether phenomenal and hopefully career-making performance), the 17-year-old son of his mother\u2019s partner, Maura, has been released from the young offenders\u2019 institute to which he was sent after biting off a boy\u2019s nose, and is coming to live with them all.<\/p>\n

Altogether phenomenal \u2026 young Niall (Mitchell Robertson) and Ruben (Stuart Campbell). Photograph: PA<\/p>\n

They share Niall\u2019s bedroom, once Ruben has stripped it of the younger teen\u2019s things and replaced them with his own \u2013 a foretaste of Niall\u2019s life to come. The two become as close as siblings (\u201cMy brother from another lover\u201d, Ruben calls him, which becomes variously a refrain, a promise and \u2013 as most things involving Ruben do \u2013 a threat). Ruben sorts out Niall\u2019s bullies, then assists in taking Niall\u2019s virginity in a scene infused with what is becoming Gadd\u2019s signature queasily heady mix of desire, coercion, tenderness and hate. But the price he demands escalates relentlessly over the years. Actually, \u201cexacts\u201d might be a better word than \u201cdemands\u201d, suggestive of something less calculating by Ruben, who operates on survival instinct and a kind of animal cunning. The problem for Niall is that whatever the reason, the damage to him and his life \u2013 to his emotional, mental and physical freedom \u2013 is the same, especially when he comes to realise the truth about his sexuality, and the idea of Ruben finding out is paralysing. When he meets the boy who shows Niall not just that he is gay but that there is a way of viewing the whole of life not through Ruben\u2019s prism, all he can do is freeze.<\/p>\n

Hurt people hurt people, the saying goes. Ruben, as Gadd and Campbell reveal his backstory, is a study in how terrorised people terrorise people. He cannot help but scent vulnerability in others and use it, but the question of whether he can help convulsing with rage and violence when thwarted, or when he wants to show affection or support to others, is one the drama unflinchingly interrogates. To a rare degree, it asks the question of when and how men \u2013 not just men like Ruben, but less \u201ctoxic\u201d versions of masculinity like Niall, and like the shadowy father figures in the story \u2013 must take responsibility for their actions. To put it most bluntly, and far more bluntly than Gadd\u2019s dense, allusive, periodically lyrical script does, it asks whether there really is no point at which you are stomping on a man\u2019s head that you cannot pull back and ask: should I be doing this? Why am I doing this? And should I not be doing everything in my power to make sure I never do this again?<\/p>\n

Home truths \u2026 young Niall (Mitchell Robertson) with his mother, Maura (Marianne McIvor) and Ruben\u2019s mother, Lori (Neve McIntosh). Photograph: BBC\/Mam Tor Productions\/Anne Binckebanck<\/p>\n

Half Man is a bleak and brilliant thing. It has its weak spots \u2013 the women are underwritten, with Niall\u2019s mum (Neve McIntosh) seeming particularly obtuse regarding Ruben and his relationship with her son, and I\u2019m not sure I buy the final detonation, which sets up the scene in the barn \u2013 but these are quibbles. Gadd\u2019s drama is brave and blazing. It leaves you with that rare and precious feeling that everyone involved \u2013 Gadd, of course, who has once again pulled out his viscera, spread them over the page and taken a scalpel to every bloody organ, but every actor too (Bell is on career-best form and then some here) \u2013 has given us the very best of themselves. You cannot, in any meaningful sense, find it wanting.<\/p>\n

If Jack Thorne\u2019s Adolescence<\/a> is to be shown in schools, Half Man needs to be shown in any place men gather. Ruben is an extreme case of \u2013 well, everything \u2013 but the fact that he exists anywhere on a scale for 48% of a population suggests that none of it can be OK. Let Gadd show them why.<\/p>\n

Half Man is on BBC iPlayer in the UK from 6am on Friday 24 April. In the US it airs on HBO Max and in Australia it airs on Stan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have known for some time, I think, that men are not OK. Richard Gadd\u2019s new drama, conceived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-542941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}