“Half Man” Might Be The Queerest, Most Uncomfortable Richard Gadd Show Yet
Richard Gadd’s new BBC and HBO drama Half Man lands on 23 April 2026, and early reviews are calling it raw, erotic, and deeply disturbing. Gadd shot to fame with the confronting, semi-autobiographical Baby Reindeer series, in which he is both the victim of a stalker and sexual assault. This time, he plays the wrecking ball.
The six-part series, shot around Glasgow and co-produced by the BBC and HBO, follows two estranged brothers whose childhood bond rots across three decades until it forces a confrontation at a wedding. Jamie Bell plays Niall Kennedy, a man who has spent his life trying to contain his attraction to other men. Gadd plays Ruben Pallister, the step-brother whose return upends everything Niall has built.
A brother story that reads like a queer nightmare
Where Baby Reindeer mined Gadd’s own trauma and picked up multiple 2024 Emmys, Half Man is pure fiction. That distance seems to have permitted him to go further. Niall’s storyline has caught our attention at DNA. He is a closeted man whose attraction to other men pushes him into risky, self-destructive behaviour. Anyone who grew up gay in a small town will feel the shape of that silence before a single line is spoken.
The Guardian‘s review called the show “uncomfortably erotic” and praised performances “so frank they’re almost feral”. Other critics say it borders on pornography in places and treats male repression more directly than most prestige drama dares.
Gadd on the sexuality crisis he never saw on screen
Gadd has been open about why the story matters to him. Speaking to Attitude, he said, “When I was going through a sexuality crisis, feeling confused, any identity struggle, what I felt I was missing was something on TV that represented that.
“There’s a feeling in people I’ve met and I know who are going through a sexuality crisis, of feeling left behind in a way,” he added. “I feel it is my duty in my art in a way to show struggle for the people who do feel left behind.”
Brutal masculinity, no easy answers
Gadd gained visible muscle for the role, and the physical shift is doing real narrative work. Ruben is the version of manhood Niall cannot allow himself to be, and the show sits with that tension rather than resolving it.
“I don’t know what it means to be a man,” Gadd told Attitude. “But I know it’s going through such flux and change right now that it’s worth exploring.”
Would we watch a show that reportedly features a step-brother sex scene and leaves viewers queasy for six hours? On the strength of Gadd’s track record, probably yes.
Half Man premieres on HBO on 23 April 2026 and BBC iPlayer on 24 April 2026.
