Neil Patrick Harris, Olly Alexander, and Russell T Davies are joining together for a new period piece.
The Years and Years singer and the How I Met Your Mother actor have joined a fleshed out cast (including Bodyguard’s Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry, Tracy Ann Oberman, Shaun Dooley, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells and Lydia West) for a five-part drama series titled Boys.
The series will be directed by Umbrella Academy’s Peter Hoar and written by Russell T Davies of the original Queer As Folk, Doctor Who, Cucumber, Tofu, Banana, and much more. The drama, which was announced at the Edinburgh International TV Festival in 2018, will be set in the 1980s and follow four friends during the heartbreaking AIDS crisis.
“Boys follows the story of the 1980s, the story of AIDS, and the story of three boys, Ritchie, played by Alexander, Roscoe and Colin, across the decade. The young trio, strangers at first, leave home at 18 and head off to London in 1981 with hope and ambition and joy. However, they’re walking straight into a plague that most of the world ignores. Year by year, episode by episode, their lives change, as the mystery of a new virus starts as a rumor, then a threat, then a terror, and then something that binds them together in the fight. It’s the story of their friends, lovers and families too, especially Jill, the girl who loves them and helps them, and galvanises them in the battles to come. Together they will endure the horror of the epidemic, the pain of rejection and the prejudices that gay men faced throughout the decade.”
There is currently no word on what role Neil Patrick Harris will play in this drama series’ limited run. Though, he shared his excitement in joining the series nonetheless.
“I’m so pleased, and incredibly proud, to be a part of Russell T Davies’ new series,” said Patrick Harris. “This drama, Boys, is two things: it is an irresistible, funny, jubilant story of young people discovering their true identities and the unalloyed joy of living life to the fullest, it is also a deeply resonant exploration of a decade when so many of these lives were cut short by the devastating effects of the nascent AIDS pandemic. Russell’s scripts chart the highs and lows of this time so beautifully and deftly, it’s an honour to help tell this story.”
The series is set to film next week and then air on British tv’s Channel 4 in 2020.
Sources: Deadline
