What We Know About Onward & Sideways, The BBC’s Bold New Drama About Living With Parkinson’s

Television has given us countless dramas about illness, loss and disability. Despite affecting someone every 20 minutes in the UK, a story has never centred so squarely (or unexpectedly joyfully) on Parkinson’s. The new BBC film Onward and Sideways – arriving on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and in cinemas later this year (we hope) – takes the life-altering degenerative neurological condition and makes it the beating heart of a love story, told with humour, dance and warmth.

The condition affects roughly 166,000 people across the UK alone, yet you’d struggle to name another major drama built around living with Parkinson’s. That changes now, thanks to a script by Paul Mayhew-Archer, the writer behind The Vicar of Dibley who co-hosts the award-winning Parkinson’s podcast Movers and Shakers, and a cast headed by Emmy and Golden Globe winner Laura Linney and BAFTA-honoured Rhys Ifans.

Here’s everything we know so far.

Onward & Sideways: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

The Plot

Onward and Sideways is a touching story about two people with lots in common: a great sense of humour, a love of dance, and Parkinson’s. Set and filmed in North Norfolk, Tony Evans (Ifans) is the deputy head of a local primary school, while Emma Dretzin (Linney) is a pianist, composer and single mother to two daughters. Neither knows the other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they are both confronted with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. From that point on, an unexpected friendship unfolds, offering both humour and emotional depth in equal measure.

The film was penned by Paul Mayhew-Archer, a British writer, producer, script editor and actor for the BBC, and frequent collaborator with Richard Curtis, with whom he wrote The Vicar of Dibley and Esio Trot. It was directed by John Madden, who describes Onward and Sideways as ‘a story of humour and emotion, of challenge and bravado, of music and dance – transcending the assumptions of a little understood condition, and triumphing over the odds to find joy, release and love’.

Is It A True Story?

Since March 2023, Mayhew-Archer has been a frequent contributor to the podcast Movers and Shakers, which is recorded in a pub in Notting Hill and is all about life with Parkinson’s. He’s joined by fellow hacks Rory Cellan-Jones, Gillian Lacey-Solymar, Mark Mardell, Paul Mayhew-Archer, Sir Nicholas Mostyn and Jeremy Paxman.

Mayhew-Archer’s lived experience of Parkinson’s shapes every line of Onward and Sideways. In 2011, at 58 years old, he was diagnosed with the condition. As he has said: ‘It’s incurable and it makes many of the things I do – walking, talking, smiling – increasingly difficult. But though I have reasons to hate Parkinson’s it has also brought me opportunities I wouldn’t have missed for the world.’

That spirit of finding light within darkness runs through Onward and Sideways. The film explores themes of redemption, resilience, kindness and compassion in the face of a serious diagnosis, while maintaining the wit and warmth of quintessentially British storytelling.

The Cast

Emmy-winning American star Laura Linney leads as Emma, opposite BAFTA-winning actor Rhys Ifans. Linney is frequently recognised for her small part in Love Actually (2003), but she is also well known for Ozark (2017–22) and The Big C (2010–13). Ifans meanwhile rose to fame in Notting Hill (1999) but can more recently spotted in The King’s Man (2021) and House of the Dragon (since 2022).

Linney and Ifans are joined by a formidable ensemble. Monica Dolan, Rory Kinnear and Mayhew-Archer himself round out the cast, alongside further talent to be announced.

Release Date

Onward and Sideways is a feature-length film arriving on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, as well as selected cinemas, in the future – but no specific date has been locked in just yet.