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It’s got Peaky Blinders swagger, says House of Guinness writer

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Yasmin RufoBBC News

imageNetflix James Norton in character as Sean Rafferty wearing a black top hat and white scarfNetflix

Taking family power struggles and turning them into global television sensations is becoming something of a habit for screenwriter Steven Knight.

With Peaky Blinders, he took a Birmingham street gang and made them a cultural force. Now, Knight is betting on another dynasty, one rooted in brewing, wealth and legacy.

House of Guinness, which launches on Netflix on Thursday, tells the story of Ireland’s most famous family name at the moment of crisis – Sir Benjamin Guinness has died and his four children, each concealing dark secrets, are left to steer the brewery’s fate.

Knight says when he looked into the real-life Guinness family, “it was immediate that I realised this is an incredible drama and story”.

He was struck by “the characters, events and how it all intermeshed with history and what was going on at the time”.

While the story is based on real events, it is a drama first and foremost. Fact and fiction have been blended together, but Knight says he doesn’t see those two things as mutually exclusive, as “it’s often the true events that are the least believable”.

“Some of the historical events are so amazing and unexpected you wouldn’t make them up yourself,” he tells the BBC.

imageNetflix

One of the imagined figures in the Netflix drama is Sean Rafferty, the brewery’s foreman, played by Happy Valley star James Norton, whose fate becomes entangled with the dynasty’s power struggles.

Norton says his character is an “amalgamation of lots of different people” who existed at the time, adding that he found researching into the history of Guinness “remarkable and fascinating”.

The 40-year-old explains that as soon as he read the script he was ready to sign up to the show.

“I read the first four scripts all at once and it was a no-brainer,” he says. “Almost every scene starts with Rafferty’s silhouette in a window in a cloud of smoke and I thought ‘sign me up, that’s really cool’.”

Most of the actors in the series were Irish, something Norton says added a level of pressure when it came to perfecting the accent and admits he was “so scared on the first day”.

imageGetty Images James Norton, wearing a black and white patterned shirt, attends the "King & Conqueror" Global Premiere at the BFI Southbank on August 14, 2025 in London, EnglandGetty Images

“You work really hard at the beginning and once you crack the first big dialogue scene and have spoken the first lines there’s no going back,” he explains.

The first scene Norton filmed was one where he punches three disloyal workers at the Guinness factory. He says he used the line ‘I see your three names written in black ash up there’ to get back into the accent for subsequent scenes.

‘Once in a lifetime experience’

Starring alongside Norton is Irish actress Danielle Galligan who plays Lady Olivia, an aristocrat who marries into the Guinness family. After the British monarch, she was the richest woman in Britain and Ireland at the time.

The actress says she loved researching her character and understanding what she was really like.

“She’s such a firecracker in the series and then I actually found out she was also a very solitary and silent woman who painted lots of watercolours,” Galligan explains.

“She was a woman who had everything and yet was still looking for something. Learning about her gave me a sense of her lack of fulfilment and added another layer to her.”

Galligan says it was very special to tell an Irish story and “to do it on a global scale is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience”.

Joining Galligan is Niamh McCormack, whose character is part of the rebellious Fenian Brotherhood, and Jack Gleeson, who is best known for playing Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones.

imageNetflix Jack Gleeson as Byron Hedges wearing a yellow coat and brown cap holding two bags and running in the streetNetflix

McCormack and Gleeson say they are proud to be part of a series that puts Ireland on the map, but admit that with pride comes pressure over how it will be received by audiences at home.

“It’s always a factor but I tried not to think about it too much,” Gleeson says. “You want things to be represented well but also hopefully people know not to take it too seriously as a historical document.”

Knight was less worried about what audiences would think, admitting: “I should care but I don’t – if you worry what people are going to think you can’t really do anything as you’d be trying to please too many different people.”

House of Guinness has already been compared to the likes of Succession, The Crown and Peaky Blinders but Knight is indifferent about how people compare it.

“People say every project is a cross between stuff and I don’t take that too seriously, I’m confident that this is its own thing,” he says.

imageGetty Images Screenwriter Steven Knight poses during a photocall to promote the dance theatre adaptation 'Peaky Blinders: The Redemption Of Thomas Shelby,' on June 10, 2025 in Birmingham, England.Getty Images

For Norton, who is also currently starring in BBC’s historical drama King & Conqueror, to be compared to such successful shows is a positive.

“To be in the same breath as those dynasty shows is great and I’m happy if we’re included among that group,” he says. Gleeson agrees and explains that this drama “takes the best bits of the rest and adds its own magic and essence”.

Knight does admit that there are many similarities between House of Guinness and Peaky Blinders and the shows have influenced each other as the 66-year-old has recently finished working on the Peaky Blinder film, The Immortal Man, which will see Cillian Murphy reprise his role as Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby.

“Sometimes parallels are pointed out that I don’t even have a clue about,” he laughs. “But there are a lot of similarities – the family, it has the same energy, humour and swagger.”

imageBBC Studios Cillian Murphy in character as Thomas Shelby wearing a cap and white shirtBBC Studios

Knight is also involved in writing the new James Bond film, which he previously told the BBC had always been on his bucket list.

The movie will be directed by Dune’s Denis Villeneuve and is currently in development and being overseen by Amazon MGM Studios after long-serving masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson stood down in February.

When asked a question about Bond, Knight smiles and says he’s not able to talk about it but does admit that after the success of several of his shows, he feels a greater freedom to write more creatively.

And with House of Guinness, he hopes to have used that freedom to make this latest dynasty saga a success in its own right.

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Palestinian leader to address UN amid peace push

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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will address the United Nations virtually today as the United States, despite its opposition to him, weighs whether to try to stop Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

The 89-year-old Palestinian Authority president will address the UN General Assembly three days after France led a special summit in which a slew of Western nations recognised a state of Palestine.

US President Donald Trump’s administration adamantly rejected statehood and, in a highly unusual step, barred Mr Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York for the annual gathering of world leaders.

The General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to let Mr Abbas address the world body with a video message.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank in a bid to kill any prospect of true independence.

French President Emmanuel Macron, despite his disagreements with Mr Trump on statehood, said that the US leader joined him in opposing annexation.

“What President Trump told me yesterday was that the Europeans and Americans have the same position,” Mr Macron said in an interview jointly with France 24 and Radio France Internationale.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that Mr Trump, in a separate meeting with a group of leaders of Arab and Islamic nations, presented a 21-point plan for ending the war.

“I think it addresses Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbours in the region,” he told the Concordia summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“We’re hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough,” he added.

Divide on Palestinian Authority

Mr Macron said that the US proposal incorporates core elements of a French plan including disarmament of Hamas and the dispatch of an international stabilisation force.

A French position paper seen by AFP calls for the gradual transfer of security control in Gaza to a reformed Palestinian Authority once a ceasefire is in place.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, one of the leaders who met jointly with Mr Trump, said that the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country was willing to offer at least 20,000 troops.

Mr Abbas’s Palestinian Authority enjoys limited control over parts of the West Bank under agreements reached through the Oslo peace accords that started in 1993.

Mr Abbas’s Fatah is the rival of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, although Mr Netanyahu’s government has sought to conflate the two.

In his address on Monday, Mr Abbas condemned the massive 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel, which has responded with a relentless military offensive.

He also called on Hamas to disarm to the Palestinian Authority.

France and other European powers, while not joining Israeli and US efforts to delegitimise the Palestinian Authority, have said that it needs major reforms.

Mr Netanyahu will address the UN General Assembly tomorrow.

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Star criticises decision to delay new show after Charlie Kirk killing

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Jessica Chastain has criticised Apple’s decision to delay the release of political thriller series The Savant after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

The actress, who is also executive producer of the show for the tech giant’s TV+ streaming service, said she was “not aligned on the decision to pause the release”.

In a post on Instagram, she said the programme, in which she plays a woman who tries to draw out potential terrorists online, is “so relevant” and she has never “shied away from difficult subjects”.

Chastain portrays a military veteran who works at the Anti-Hate Alliance, where she secretly visits 4Chan-like message boards and poses as a white nationalist to identify possible terrorists.

“‘The Savant’ is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it happens, and honouring their courage feels more urgent than ever,” Chastain said.

“I remain hopeful the show will reach audiences soon. Until then, I’m wishing safety and strength for everyone.”

She listed several acts of political violence in the US in recent years, including a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer, the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump last year and also the killing of controversial influencer Kirk.

Read more:
The string of bloody political violence in the MAGA era

Apple said it chose to postpone the show after “careful consideration” but did not give a reason why.

Kimmel’s comeback show brings in record ratings

Meanwhile, millions of people tuned in to watch Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday after he returned to TV after Disney suspended him for nearly a week after he made comments about Kirk.

Jimmy Kimmel hosting his late night show. Pic: AP
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Jimmy Kimmel hosting his late night show. Pic: AP

ABC said 6.26 million people watched Kimmel as he said it was “never my intention to make light of” Kirk’s death. It was the late-night show’s highest-rated regularly scheduled episode.

Read more:
Explained: Why Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air

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Kimmel returns – and not everyone’s on same page

“I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” he said as he choked up.

“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make”.

Kimmel had been accused of being “offensive and insensitive” after using his programme, Jimmy Kimmel Live, to accuse Donald Trump and his allies of capitalising on the killing.

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Candidates begin canvassing in Presidential Election

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In the first full day of campaigning in the Presidential Election, the three candidates will be canvassing in Dublin, Laois, and Limerick.

Independent candidate Catherine Connolly, who is backed by the left-leaning parties in the Oireachtas, will attend a meeting of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee this morning in her capacity as a TD for Galway West.

Afterwards, and as a presidential candidate, she will be campaigning in the capital, including at a rally in Harold’s Cross this evening.

The Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys will start her campaign today in Laois, with a lunchtime canvass in Portlaoise.

Later, she will be canvassing in Limerick City before attending a Fine Gael rally in Patrickswell.

Earlier, Ms Humphreys said housing supply is “the biggest challenge” facing the country and “very tough”, but stopped short of agreeing with outgoing President Michael D Higgins that it has become a “disaster”.

The Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin will be in the capital this morning, with a canvass in Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire.

He also will be joined by party colleagues at other campaign events in south Dublin.

Barrister Maria Steen failed to secure enough support to join the race, securing 18 Oireachtas nominations when 20 was required.

After her campaign ended yesterday morning, Ms Steen told the media that “rarely has the political consensus seemed more oppressive or detached from the public’s wishes.”

However, Taoiseach Micheál Martin rejected suggestions that the failure of Ms Steen to secure a nomination was “anti-democratic”.

Voting takes place on 24 October. It is the smallest field in a Presidential Election since 1990.

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