Channel 4’s Trespasses: What To Know Before You Tune In

A decade after The Fall, Gillian Anderson is back in Belfast to star in Trespasses, Channel 4’s adaptation of Louise Kennedy’s bestselling (and Women’s Prize nominated) novel of the same name. But this time we’re flashing back to the ’70s, in the height of The Troubles. A forbidden love story, Trespasses is led by a stellar trio: Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen and Gillian Anderson. Here’s your first look, plus everything we know about the four-part drama.

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Trespasses: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

Directed by BAFTA award-winning Dawn Shadforth and adapted by Bad Sisters‘ Ailbhe Keogan, as well as starring, Gillian Anderson is an executive producer on Trespasses. ‘I fell in love with Louise’s stunning book when I read it in proof,’ Anderson said when the project was first announced in summer 2024. ‘I was immediately drawn to the tragi-comic creation that is Gina and couldn’t resist when Louise asked me to play her.’

Lola Petticrew as Cushla Lavery & Tom Cullen as Michael Agnew in Trespasses. (Channel 4)

What Happens?

Belfast, 1975. Cushla (Petticrew) is a sparky young Catholic woman whose dreams have been dulled by the grind of daily life in a Belfast wracked by the Troubles. Teaching at a parochial school by day and working at the family pub come evening, Cushla is constantly sparring with her mother, Gina (Anderson).

But it’s at the pub that Cushla meets Michael (Cullen), a controversial Protestant barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. His cultured, bohemian, Protestant friends enrage her – but she’s also intrigued. Against her better judgement, Cushla is drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything she wants to protect.

Watch the trailer below for a taste of the action.

Speaking to C&TH earlier this year, Cullen described Trespasses as ‘one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life,’ noting that Kennedy’s 2022 novel ‘is deep, poetic and complex’, that he ‘cried several times reading it’ and that ‘the scripts are a faithful adaptation’.

‘The cast is absolutely out of this world,’ Cullen added. ‘When you’re working with people like Lola Petticrew and Gillian Anderson, they force you to raise your game.’ Cullen also complimented the ‘inherently female’ quality of the four-part drama: ‘Female writers, female producers, female director, female protagonist. We’re so used to seeing film and television through a male gaze, and Trespasses is anything but that. I don’t want to get stuck in broad statements and cliches, but there is poetry and a delicacy to the storytelling telling that you don’t get from men. Its themes are robust and challenging, but its complexity is navigated with the kind of nuance I feel only women embody.’

But in amongst all of this femininity, Cullen plays a married older man who is falling in love with a younger woman, a package her described as ‘terrifying’. ‘There will be people who are put off by that idea from the off and I understand that, because it feels like we have seen that before,’ he says. ‘But Louise’s book is a complex look at a young woman’s life. People aren’t perfect. And when put against a backdrop of The Troubles, it is a vivid look at what it means to love; to love oneself, our community, our family and our lovers.

‘It’s messy. But that is life,’ he adds. ‘Who wants to watch people be perfect anyway? It certainly won’t be boring.’

The Trespasses Cast

Alongside Cullen at the fore we have Lola Petticrew (who plays Cushla), a rising Northern Irish star known for roles across Dating Amber (2020), Bloodlands (2021–22), She Said (2022) and their critically acclaimed role in FX’s Say Nothing (2024), another drama set amid The Troubles. Cullen recently starred opposite Vicky McClure in Paramount’s Insomnia as well as in BBC crime drama The Gold.

Michael and Cushla’s love story is anchored by Gina (Gillian Anderson), Cushla’s devoted if inconventional mother. Anderson was last seen on TV in 2022’s The First Lady, though recent films include The Salt Path (2024) and Scoop (2024). Anderson returns to Belfast after her 2013–16 hit TV series The Fall, in which she starred opposite Jamie Dornan.

The full cast we know includes:

• Lola Petticrew as Cushla
• Tom Cullen as Michael
• Gillian Anderson as Gina
• Martin McCann
• Oisín Thompson
• Emily Taaffe
• Barry Ward
• Lisa Dwyer Hogg
• Lorcan Cranitch
• Frank Blake
• Gary Lydon
• Lalor Roddy

Gillian Anderson as Gina Lavery in Trespasses. (Channel 4)

What Is Trespasses Based On?

Trespasses is based on Louise Kennedy’s 2022 novel of the same name, which made it to the shortlist of the 2023 Women’s Prize, ultimately losing out to Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. The synopsis is as follows:

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment – Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married – Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

The book was adapted for the screen by Ailbhe Keogan, who has previously worked on Bad Sisters. ‘I am genuinely excited for the world to meet Cushla and Michael on screen,’ Keogan says. ‘The whole scripting process has been remarkably pain-free as the team was guided by their love of Louise’s stunning novel. It remained our creative lodestar throughout. We feel incredibly grateful to have been gifted the chance to bring the world within it to life, especially the unforgettable characters that populate Cushla and Michael’s Belfast. This show will be political, cinematic, sensual, moving, and, despite the heartbreak, ultimately hopeful.’

‘Watching Amanda Posey [executive producer] and the team develop Trespasses for television has been an utter joy,’ Kennedy adds. ‘From Ailbhe Keogan’s ear-perfect, sexy script to director Dawn Shadforth’s gorgeously melancholic aesthetic vision, exceptional care has been taken to bring an authentic and beautiful version of my book to the small screen. I honestly could not have asked for more.’

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