Sky Starts Production on 'Charmer': Anthony Boyle Leads Eight-Part Drama About a Seducer-for-Hire
Sky has started production on Charmer, an eight-part drama starring Anthony Boyle as a professional seducer hired to test the fidelity of wealthy clients' partners. Cameras are rolling at Sky Studios Elstree, just outside London, according to Deadline.
Boyle plays Ryan, a man whose job is to tempt people into infidelity on behalf of their suspicious partners. The series follows a group of thirty-something Londoners whose lives are upended when one of Ryan's assignments turns personal ahead of a wedding. Thomas Aspell created the series and wrote the scripts, with Elliot Hegarty directing. Melissa Bubnic, Constance Cheng and Anna Ssemuyaba write additional episodes, and Dionne Edwards directs the second block of episodes.
The cast runs deep. Alongside Boyle, the ensemble includes Siena Kelly, Connor Swindells, Sophie Wilde, Sam Delich, Vivian Oparah, Neil Maskell, Karan Gill, Sophie Simnett and Polly Walker — a mix of emerging and established performers spanning film and television.
Working Title and Story Films are producing Charmer in association with Universal Global Television and Sky Studios. Executive producers include Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner (the duo behind Working Title), Surian Fletcher-Jones and Simon Hatton for Working Title Television, David Nath and Peter Beard for Story Films, and creator Aspell and director Hegarty. Josh Wilkins serves as co-executive producer. Manpreet Dosanjh is the commissioning editor and executive producer for Sky, with Charlotte Surtees as series producer — the person who runs the day-to-day production.
Meghan Lyvers, Sky's Managing Director of Scripted Originals, described Charmer as the kind of bold, original storytelling the platform champions, as reported by Deadline.
The announcement landed just hours before the Edinburgh TV Festival — the industry's annual gathering where commissioners, producers and writers take the temperature of the business. This year's edition is the last held in Scotland's capital before the festival relocates to Manchester, giving the Charmer reveal an extra layer of timing.
For viewers, Charmer will air on Sky and its streaming service Now in the UK and Italy. NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution, the arm of NBCU that sells completed shows to broadcasters and platforms worldwide, will handle international sales to other territories — meaning audiences beyond Sky's footprint could see the series through local deals.
Boyle, who is represented by B-Side, WME, Tapestry London and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole, has built a career across stage and screen, with credits that include The Plot Against America and Derry Girls. The role of Ryan places him at the centre of a premise that hinges on deception, desire and the fallout when a job stops being just a job.
No air date has been announced. Production is under way.
