The co-creator of “Tall Tales & Murder” says the show’s second season will head into territory that has no precedent in the novels it adapts, as the Irish crime comedy keeps selling abroad. Chris Addison, who co-created the series with Stuart Carolan, spoke last week at MIPCOM in Cannes, where Avalon, the show’s international distributor, met buyers. He said the first season left Caimh McDonnell’s “Dublin Trilogy” so far behind that the second picks up “off the rock.” The opening episodes begin as slightly odd, he said, and escalate into something far wilder, which makes the start of Season 2 wilder still.
The series premiered Sept. 27 on Ireland’s RTÉ. BBC Northern Ireland and RTÉ ordered two six-part seasons from the start, a commitment announced in June 2025 when cameras began rolling. Carolan, who created the Irish crime drama “Love/Hate,” wrote the scripts. Addison, an Emmy and Directors Guild winner known for “Veep,” “Breeders” and “The Thick of It,” directed episodes with Neasa Hardiman.
Ella Lily Hyland, who plays Bridget, anchors the cast, with Aidan Gillen, Philippa Dunne and Packy Lee in support. Addison said the show was built around Hyland’s character, and the ensemble includes names from “Black Doves,” “Game of Thrones,” “Derry Girls” and “Peaky Blinders.”
At the commissioning stage, BBC Northern Ireland’s head of content commissioning, Eddie Doyle, called it “storytelling at its darkest, funniest and most surreal.” Carolan has said he admired Addison’s work since “The Thick of It” and enjoyed bringing “this insane story to life” with him.
The show draws on the eight-book Dublin Trilogy by McDonnell, though Addison’s comments suggest the adaptation has become an original story with its own logic. Avalon and Metropolitan Pictures produce, with support from Screen Ireland.
Avalon has not announced which territories bought the series in the latest round or when Season 2 will shoot. RTÉ and the BBC have not said whether the second run will air on the same schedule as the first. Addison said only that he and Carolan are beginning to think about it. The sales push gives Irish drama another export. RTÉ said last year it would deliver more than 142 hours of original drama in 2025.
