Playing Nice and The White Lotus stars team in first-look at new Sky thriller
Neil Cross, the mastermind behind Luther, is set to thrill audiences once again with a new Sky original series, The Iris Affair, slated for release later this year.
The creator of edge-of-your-seat dramas such as Spooks and Hard Sun, Neil Cross is bringing his latest creation to life, promising to make The Iris Affair one of the most anticipated shows of 2025.
With a cast featuring Tom Hollander from The White Lotus and Niamh Algar of Playing Nice fame, the first glimpse of this sun-drenched thriller has just been unveiled to eager fans.
The series, comprising eight parts, will be brought to the screen by directors Terry McDonough, known for his work on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Sarah O'Gorman, acclaimed for her direction in A Gentleman in Moscow and The Witcher.
Sky's synopsis teases: "The Iris Affair is a tense and cinematic chase thriller that pits two brilliant minds against each other in a deadly game of hide and seek across Italy", reports the Express.
"When enigmatic genius Iris Nixon (Algar) cracks a string of complex online puzzles, she's led to a piazza in Florence where she meets charismatic entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Hollander).
"He invites her to come and work for him to unlock a powerful and top-secret piece of technology. Her curiosity piqued, she accepts. But when Iris discovers its dangerous potential, she steals the journal containing the device's activation sequence-and vanishes.
"What follows is a relentless pursuit, from a remote cabin in Sardinia through the bustling streets of Rome, as Cameron races to find Iris in a high-stakes game where trust is dangerous and failure could be catastrophic."
The Iris Affair, with its captivating premise and top-notch talent behind the scenes, boasts a star-studded cast alongside Hollander and Algar for this thrilling journey.
Joining the lead duo are renowned actors like Game of Thrones' Kristofer Hivju, Arcane's Harry Lloyd and Doctor Who's Sacha Dhawan.
TV lovers can now get Sky TV, Netflix and Discovery+ for £22 per month with the new Ultimate TV bundle.
This includes more than 140 channels live and on-demand without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like The White Lotus, The Last of Us and Squid Game.
The supporting cast is rounded off by Meréana Tomlinson, Maya Sansa, Peter Sullivan, Debi Mazar, Marco Leonardi, Angela Bruce and Lorenzo De Moor.
The series, created and showrun by Cross, is being produced by Fremantle, with scripts penned by Susan E. Connolly and Ian Scott McCullough.
While an official release date is yet to be confirmed, this must-see thriller is set to hit our screens by the end of 2025.
The Iris Affair will premiere in 2025 on Sky and NOW.
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Sunday World
6 hours ago
- Sunday World
Murder suspect Ian Bailey to have his remains scattered in Cork later this month
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The Irish Sun
7 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
I met ISIS bride Shamima Begum in prison camp – I felt sorry for her but saw true colours when I gave her wrong ‘gift'
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He initially felt sorry for Begum, then 21, and became a close confidant of the Jihadi bride - even securing a In less than two years his view of Begum - accused of serving in the feared IS "morality police" and helping make suicide vests - completely changed, however. He saw a colder side when she talked about how the death of her three children no longer upset her and even expressed support of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi. Extreme adventurer Andrew, who has made treacherous journeys to North Korea and Iraq, said at first Begum was a "thin, ill-looking, sad character" who was "very apologetic". Advertisement "We took a long walk around the camp, She started to relax, and she said she used to take this regular walk right around the perimeter of the camp to clear her head," he said. "After the interview finished, we walked back to the room. Normally she'd go off to a tent, but she wanted to come back to the room to get a cold drink. "Then I didn't want to insult her at that point, I wanted to say goodbye - I thought I'd never see her again. How Shamima Begum camps are fermenting twisted next generation of ISIS as kids make 'cutthroat' gesture & hurl firebombs "I said, 'Can I shake your hand?' and she asked for a hug. "So she gave me a hug and started to cry." Advertisement Andrew, from Surrey, said he felt they had formed a connection and believed she regretted turning her back on Western society to join the murderous death cult. "At that point I kind of believed that she was sincere," he said. I actually don't think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it Andrew Drury "I kind of felt sorry for her. I thought at that point she'd been radicalised online, sent out as a prescribed bridge to somebody. "She said she'd made a real bad mistake and really regretted what she'd done. "She owned up to being this person that everybody hates in the UK. Advertisement "And I felt sorry for her, I've got young daughters, not a lot of difference in age, so I thought people do make mistakes, and I should give her a chance." Andrew - whose book The author, who has exchanged hundreds of messages with Begum, said he noticed a "subtle change" in the former Brit. Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, appeared to have undergone a more "Western" makeover - ditching her hijab and abaya. 7 Andrew secured the Bafta-nominated live interview with Begum for Good Morning Britain Credit: Alamy Advertisement 7 Begum, then 19, pictured in 2019 Credit: Times Media Ltd 7 The former Brit at the camp in 2021 Credit: Getty "She had changed as a character," Andrew said. "She was more short. She wasn't this nervous-cry sort of character. "She looked assured, and she didn't seem such a waif character, and she seemed to be in control of herself and her emotions." Advertisement Andrew told how Begum spent the night before the live interview "rehearsing" with three of her friends In the camp, which is controlled by armed guards. He added: "Her friends said they'd had their music playing and they were tutoring Shamima what to say. "They seemed pretty together about what she should say, and they were schooling her." Begum married an IS fighter soon after arriving in Syria and went on to have three children, none of whom survived. Andrew - who said he had formed a "bond" with Begum - told how after the interview, Shamima opened her purse and showed him photos of her children. Advertisement The tragic loss of his own brother Robert as a child made him sympathise with Shamima's plight. "One of them was a scene where the child must have been eight, nine months old, had chocolate around his face," he recalled. "I said, 'What's that?' and she said, 'Oh we used to like baking cakes'. "And it actually makes me quite sad. It was really quite sad knowing the child had died. "She made it sound like an honour that she had shared these pictures with me, which I guess it probably was, because she hadn't shared them before she said." Advertisement 7 But it was Begum's attitude after Andrew returned to the UK that shocked him - and began to shatter their relationship. "I said to her, 'Those pictures you showed me really upset me, I hope you're okay'," he said. "She messaged back and said, 'Oh, they don't bother me anymore. That doesn't make me sad'. "I thought, was that because she's been traumatised so badly? Advertisement "But I think she is that hard. I think she's calculated. "I actually don't think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it." After meeting Andrew a couple of times, Begum started asking him to bring stuff into the camp for her - including clothes. The dad said he felt "at a crossroads" about whether to take what she wanted. "I felt bad and guilty that I'd be taking somebody that carried out what could have been some atrocities, clothes," he said. Advertisement "But then, probably on the soft side of me, and the fact is, she was a young girl, so I was playing with these emotions, but I took her the clothes from Primark. "We had a bundle of stuff, we took some toys for the children because it's not their fault." But then Begum's requests started turning into demands, Andrew said. "The messages continued," he added. Camps breeding next ISIS generation Exclusive by Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor and Alan Duncan A CHILD no older than eight draws his hand across his neck in a chilling throat-slitting gesture - the message is clear, "You are not welcome here". Other kids hurl stones, shout and scream - while one exasperated camp official shows us CCTV of two youngsters hurling a firebomb. Welcome to camps al-Hol and al-Roj in northern Syria - the fates of which remain uncertain after the fall of tyrant Bashar al-Assad. It is warned these stark detention centres are now the breeding ground for the next generation of the bloodthirsty cult. And much of this new wave of radicalisation is feared to be coming from the mothers inside the camps. Senior camp official Rashid Omer said: "The reality is - they are not changing. This is not a normal camp - this a bomb." He went on: "They are saying it was ISIS who 'liberated' Damascus - and soon they will be coming here." "And then they want to spread to Europe, to Africa, and then to everywhere." The two sprawling sites hold a total of nearly 60,000 including ISIS fighters, families and children. At least 6,000 Westerners are still held among them - including infamous jihadi bride "This time they became slightly more angry, slightly more direct." Advertisement Before he planned to return to Syria again, Begum told him she wanted two books - Guantanamo Bay Diaries and Sea Prayer - which is inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis. Andrew said she was also being schooled by her lawyer about her media presence. He added: "What she declared by then is that she was hostage in a prison camp - where they were legally held. "That's how she started to see herself. All apologies had gone. "She'd done a documentary with the BBC and was on the front of The Times magazine. Advertisement "She'd become a celebrity and was loving all the attention. She'd read all the newspaper articles." Andrew - who returned to the camp with a friend and no crew - took some clothes for Begum with him. I could see things in her I didn't like. I didn't trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive Andrew Drury But it was his decision not to take the books she had demanded that revealed her true colours. "I did go back again, but my feelings were already changing towards her," Andrew said. "It was a little boy's birthday, and I felt so sorry for him. Advertisement "He wanted a Superman outfit, so I would have gone just for that, because I spend a lot of time in refugee camps. It's not fair for these kids. "I didn't take the books Shamima wanted because I didn't want to. I didn't want her to have that opportunity to what I saw as studying how to be a victim. "She opened the clothes, said she didn't like them. I mean, this is a girl in a prison camp. "She said, 'I didn't really care about the clothes, it was the books I wanted'. So she became quite aggressive in her nature." Who is Shamima Begum? ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019. But she appeared to show no remorse and called the 2017 Manchester Arena massacre of 22 people Her principled position has sparked intense debate about the UK's responsibilities to jihadis who despise the country and everything it stands for, but want to return from Syria. The case took a dramatic turn on February 20 2019 when it emerged Begum claims she is "willing to change" her ways while pleading for "mercy" from Britain. Her appeals against the decision have all been denied. Begum's attitude then worsened when Andrew became interested in another girl's story. Advertisement It was one of the final nails in the coffin in the bond Andrew believed they had initially formed. "Shamima had a tantrum that the attention had been taken away from her," he said. "She was like a child that was pretending they were ill. "So during this period of time I was beginning to feel like the connection was gone. "It was broken, and I was beginning not to like her. Advertisement "I could see things in her I didn't like. I didn't trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive. "I had found out from other girls what she was accused of, and they told me the same thing that I had heard before, like sewing suicide vests "Things were ringing in my head like she said early on that the Manchester bombing was legitimate because of what happened in Iraq and Syria. "So I didn't trust her." Andrew's last contact with Begum was around two years ago in a fiery text exchange. Advertisement She accused Andrew of "selling her out", to which he shot back: "You've sold your country out." Begum last year lost her final appeal challenging the removal of her British citizenship. She can now no longer fight to overturn the revocation of her citizenship within the UK legal system. Andrew said: "I think she's a danger for what she stood for, and I don't think she could ever come back. "I think she needs to go on trial in Syria for the crimes she committed against the Syrian people." Advertisement
The Irish Sun
9 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Michelle Keegan looks incredible as new mum shows off her post baby body in figure-hugging dresses
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