{"id":1986880,"date":"2025-08-29T16:50:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1986880"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:50:06","slug":"julia-roberts-to-narrate-new-bbc-series-by-irish-author-and-starring-derry-girls-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/julia-roberts-to-narrate-new-bbc-series-by-irish-author-and-starring-derry-girls-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Roberts to narrate new BBC series by Irish author and starring Derry Girls actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Roberts, 57, who is best known for starring in Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and the Oscar-award winning biopic Erin Brockovich, has joined the cast for the six-part comedy drama series, Leonard And Hungry Paul.<\/p>\n

The series is based on Dublin writer R\u00f3n\u00e1n Hession\u2019s best-selling novel of the same name and will star Departure actor Alex Lawther, Fool Me Once\u2019s Laurie Kynaston and Derry Girls star Jamie-Lee O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n

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Jamie-Lee O’Donnell<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Julia Roberts will narrate the series (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Produced for BBC Northern Ireland by the Irish production company Subotica, Leonard And Hungry Paul will be available to watch later this autumn on BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two and iPlayer.<\/p>\n

The show follows two board-gaming friends in their 30s, Leonard, played by Lawther, and Hungry Paul, played by Kynaston, whose quiet and ordinary lives are disrupted by an unexpected death, family wedding and tentative new romance.<\/p>\n

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Author R\u00f3n\u00e1n Hession. Photo: City Headshots Dublin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Tristan Orpen Lynch, executive producer for Subotica said: \u201cIt is truly wonderful to have the amazingly talented Julia Roberts join the production, we had heard she was a big fan of Ronan\u2019s beautiful book and she brings a real warmth and genuine compassionate understanding to this important role which guides us through the unique world and special characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard And Hungry Paul has been adapted for television by writers Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson and is directed by Andrew Chaplin.<\/p>\n

Eddie Doyle, senior head of content commissioning at BBC Northern Ireland, said: \u201cTo have Julia Roberts lend her extraordinary voice and storytelling talent to this series is another ringing endorsement for how special this project is.<\/p>\n

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Julia Roberts attending the Fashion Awards 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHer narration will add to the magic of this story and we are excited to bring it to audiences very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast is also joined by The Virtues\u2019 Helen Behan, Bloodlands actor Lorcan Cranitch and Harry Wild\u2019s Niamh Branigan.<\/p>\n

Sherlock & Daughter actor Paul Reid also appears in the series alongside Say Nothing\u2019s Charlotte McCurry and Doctors actor David O\u2019Reilly.<\/p>\n

Leonard And Hungry Paul will be available to watch on BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two and iPlayer later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roberts, 57, who is best known for starring in Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and the Oscar-award winning biopic Erin Brockovich, has joined the cast for the six-part comedy drama series, Leonard And Hungry Paul. The series is based on Dublin writer R\u00f3n\u00e1n Hession\u2019s best-selling novel of the same name and will star Departure actor Alex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1986881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1986880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Julia-Roberts-to-narrate-new-BBC-series-by-Irish-author.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1986881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}