What We Know So Far About The Rachel Incident TV Adaptation

Irish author and podcaster Caroline O’Donoghue has revealed that her beloved novel, The Rachel Incident, is set to be adapted for the small screen.

The eight-part series will be created by the minds behind the Normal People TV show.

So it’s safe to say that we’ll be big fans here at STELLAR HQ.

The series will be produced by the award-winning Element Pictures, the producers of Normal People, and will air on Channel 4.

The Rachel Incident, which has become a firm favourite among readers across the globe, is set in Cork against the backdrop of the 2008 recession and inspired by Caroline’s own time in college.

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever.

Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires.

So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife.

Speaking about the upcoming series, Caroline said: “Like most authors I’ve always dreamed of having my work adapted for the screen, but never could have imagined a situation as dreamy as this. Channel 4 and Element have, between them, created some of the best relationship dramas on TV and I know they’ll do the same for Rachel.

 

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A post shared by Caroline O’Donoghue (@czaronline)

“NBCUniversal have been stalwart collaborators since long before the book was even published, and I’m so grateful to them for setting me up with Jen Statsky who has been an incredible mentor to me as I embark on my first show. I’m incredibly lucky.”

Caroline is collaborating with Jen Statsky, co-creator of the hit comedy series Hacks, to create the TV version of her novel. The proud Cork woman shared a clip from the American series with the caption: “This, but Cork,” as she described what to expect from the series.

We can’t wait to watch!