Irish author Marian Keyes’ Walsh family series to be adapted for TV

Marian Keyes’ novel series which follows the “dysfunctional but deeply loveable” Walsh family will be adapted for the small screen.

The six-part drama series, inspired by five novels by the acclaimed Irish author, has been commissioned by Irish broadcaster RTE and will air on the BBC in the UK.

The Walsh Sisters will feature the “chaotic, dysfunctional but deeply loveable Walsh family of five sisters, a devout mother and a bemused father”, the BBC has said.

Keyes said: “This is so exciting, I’m beside myself. I love the scripts, they’ve really kept the spirit of the books.

“It’s been almost impossible to keep this a secret and it’s a great feeling that the news is now out in the world.”

Set in their Dublin home town, The Walsh Sisters follows the lives of Anna, Rachel, Maggie, Claire and Helen as they navigate their late 20s and 30s.

Their relationship is described as a “sisterhood full of in-jokes, hand-me-down resentments and more than a few old wounds”, but their “DNA, history and shared love of power ballads keep the Walsh sisters together in the face of heartbreak, grief, addiction and parenthood”, the BBC said.

Irish writer Stefanie Preissner, known for creating comedy Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, has adapted the series, writing four episodes, while Kefi Chadwick, who has worked on drama Rivals and crime series Death In Paradise, has written the other two episodes.

Filming for the series will begin in early 2025 and launch on RTE, followed by BBC iPlayer and BBC One.

Head of drama at RTE, David Crean, said the series going in to production is “beyond exciting”, and that Preissner and Chadwick have “brilliantly captured and re-imagined” Keyes’ world.

The series will be directed by Ian FitzGibbon and produced by award-winning production companies Cuba Pictures and Metropolitan Films International, in association with the BBC and Screen Ireland.

Keyes and Preissner will executive produce the project alongside a host of others including Crean.

Since publishing her first novel in 1995, Keyes has sold more than 30 million copies of her books and they have been translated into 36 languages.

Her other bestsellers include Rachel’s Holiday and Grown Ups; she has won a number of Irish Book Awards and was named author of the year at the British Book Awards in 2022.