A ‘ground-breaking’ revenge thriller from the makers of Adolescence is finally available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Reunion is a four-part series presented in both spoken English and British Sign Language (BSL), which follows a deaf man’s quest to uncover the truth about the events that led to his incarceration 10 years earlier.
Unable to fully integrate with the hearing world and shunned by the deaf community, Daniel Brennan (Matthew Gurney) reunites with his estranged daughter Carly (Lara Peake) while the wife of his victim, Christine (Anne-Marie Duff), searches for answers as to why he killed her husband.
Written by Sheffield-born deaf writer William Mager, the show was produced by the team behind Netflix’s smash hit Adolescence.
Starring the likes of Eddie Marsan and former EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis, the show has been hailed for pushing boundaries.
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In an interview with Liam O’Dell, Ayling-Ellis said: ‘This is a big one. I think that it’s ground-breaking because you’ve got a deaf writer, you’ve got deaf actors – more than one, there’s a lot of them. We’ve even got deaf SAs [supporting artists], as well.
‘Also, we have deaf crew – there were so many deaf crew, I’ve never seen that many in my life, but that was completely new to me in the whole experience.’
Gurney – who plays newly-released murder convict Daniel Brennan – told Metro that the show has redefined what deaf representation looks like in mainstream media.
The lead star said in an interview: ‘Obviously, Brennan’s a deaf character, and he’s very different from the stereotypes we’ve had in other programs or films, where it’s all very patronising, “oh the community”.
‘This isn’t about that at all. He’s just a man who happens to be deaf, and he’s on his own journey and that really hooked me. If he was a victim, I wouldn’t have auditioned for him as a part for me but it was a really exciting character to play.’
How to Have Sex star Peake also praised how the show strikes a balance between being a thriller and highlighting issues within the deaf community.
She said: ‘There’s a huge amount of humanity in [this series]. This need to communicate and understand one another and want answers. It’s not just a cold-hearted revenge story where somebody’s getting whoever it is they need.
7 revenge thrillers to binge if you love Reunion
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The Boys (available to stream on Amazon Prime Video)
Dexter (available to stream on Netflix)
Killing Eve (available to stream on BBC iPlayer)
Revenge (available to stream on Disney Plus)
‘It’s about connection and relationships and forgiveness. So I think it’s really beautiful that it’s got all these different layers, as well as the heart of it – this driving force of the revenge story,’ she said.
Following Adolescence’s record-breaking viewing numbers on Netflix, the show’s producers will be hoping for a similar impact with Reunion.
Earlier this month, it was confirmed that the Netflix drama is now being made available for free in all British schools.
The four-part drama, co-created by and starring Stephen Graham, deals with incel culture, social media addiction and the difficulty of parenting in today’s world.
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The announcement was made as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met with the show’s creators at Downing Street during a meeting about the issues tackled by the series.
Saying that the programme hit him, his wife, and his son ‘hard’, the Labour leader added that he wished to work out ‘what can we do as a society to stop and prevent young boys being dragged into this whirlpool of hatred and misogyny’.
He added: ‘It’s pernicious and persistent. But what Adolescence shows is that it’s now taken on a different form, or different characteristics [that can be] pumped directly into the minds of our children.’
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Reunion is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
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