“More stars than there are in heaven,” says Graham Norton.

ITV has published the cast list for their upcoming drama-comedy Holding, based on the novel by Graham Norton. The show will star Conleth Hill (Lord Varys from Game of Thrones) in the leading role, opposite Brenda Fricker, who one an Academy Award for My Left Foot.

The four-part series, which will be set in the fictional Cork town of Duneen, will feature several of Cork’s finest thespians, including Siobhán McSweeney, perhaps best-known for her iconic turn as a Sister Michael on Derry Girls. Other major parts will be played by Charlene McKenna (Peaky Blinders, Vienna Blood, Bloodlands), Helen Behan (Elizabeth is Missing, The Virtues, This is England ’90), and Pauline McLynn (GameFace, Father Ted, Angela’s Ashes).

Norton himself commented on the cast, saying: “More stars than there are in heaven …… What a cast!!!” Much of the filming is set to take place in Skibbereen.

Also making his first appearance in a television show is popular Irish sketch comedian Michael Fry.

Completing the cast are Clinton Liberty (Handsome Devil, Normal People), Amy Conroy (The South Westerlies), Olwen Fouéré (Beast), Eleanor Tiernan (Bridget and Eamon), Gary Shelford (Belgravia), Lochlann Ó’Meárain (Smother), Sky Yang (Halo), Demi Issac Oviawe (The Young Offenders), Norma Sheahan (Bridget and Eamon), and Anne Kent (Fair City) with Calum Rea, Jane Spollen, Jim O’Donnell, Pat Kinevane, Karl Quinn, Maria Connolly, Ian Brooker, Abhainn Harrington, Christopher Logan, Molly Logan, Terhas Gleeson, Ivet Corvea, Gary Murphy and Felix Brown.

ITV offer this description of the show:

Olivier award winning actor, Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones, Dublin Murders, Vienna Blood) plays local  police officer Sergeant PJ Collins, a gentle man who hides from people and fills his days with comfort food and half-hearted police work. He is one of life’s outsiders, lovable, but lonely and a bit rubbish at his job. 

When the body of long-lost local legend Tommy Burke is discovered, PJ is called to solve a serious crime for the first time in his career. Unearthing long buried secrets, PJ finally connects with the village he has tried so hard to avoid.

No release date has been set, but we’re already very excited to see how this one comes together.