The Iris Affair

The Iris Affair is a British thriller television series created by Neil Cross, and stars Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander in the lead roles. The series premiered on 16 October 2025 on Sky Atlantic.

Cast and characters

Main

• Niamh Algar as Iris Nixon, an enigmatic genius mathematician and puzzle solver
• Tom Hollander as Cameron Beck, a wealthy private investor pursuing Iris
• Meréana Tomlinson as Joy Baxter, a wayward teen and student of Iris
• Sacha Dhawan as Alfie Bird, a YouTuber and former journalist who reports on the search for Iris
• Maya Sansa as Inspector Nico Casterman, a Polizia di Stato officer in Sardinia
• Marco Leonardi as Chief Commissioner Enrico Bruni, the leader of a group of corrupt mainland Polizia di Stato detectives
• Lorenzo De Moor as Vice Inspector Teo Solinas, a Polizia di Stato officer in Sardinia
• Angela Bruce as Meski, Beck's head of security
• Antonio Gargiulo as Commissioner Tommaso Krauss, a corrupt Polizia di Stato detective
• Peter Sullivan as Julian Baxter, Joy's father
• Debi Mazar as Celia Baxter, Joy's stepmother
• Kristofer Hivju as Professor Jensen Lind, the creator of Charlie, a revolutionary quantum device
• Harry Lloyd as Hugo Pym, the acting head of the Intragroup Committee, who helped Beck finance Charlie's construction

Supporting

• Simon Rizzoni as Claude Baptiste, the deputy police commissioner and Krauss's partner
• Salvatore Ruocco as Bernardo De Santis
• Amina Zia as Dia Ramachandran
• Adrian Paul Jeyasingham as Mani Chopra, a scientist working for Beck
• Alessia Deband as Carlotta Solinas, Teo's wife
• Alessia Yoko Fontana as Ako Nakamura
• Alessandro Pess as Frederico "Freddo" Zonin, the leader of a group of youths who are tracking Iris
• Frances Barber as Etta Friedman, Alfie's former publicist
• Julia Messina as Akim

Episodes

Production

Written by Neil Cross, Susan E. Connolly, and Ian Scott McCullough, Terry McDonough is the series' lead director and is also an executive producer. Sarah O'Gorman is also directing episodes. The series producer is Tim Bricknell. Executive producers are Cross, McDonough; Dante Di Loreto and Jenni Sherwood for Fremantle, and Adrian Sturges for Sky Studios.

The cast is led by Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander, and also includes Sacha Dhawan, Peter Sullivan, Maya Sansa, Meréana Tomlinson, and Debi Mazar as well as Kristofer Hivju, Harry Lloyd, and Lorenzo De Moor.

Filming took place in Cagliari and Alghero on Sardinia in the summer of 2024. First-look images from filming were released in May 2025, with the confirmed title The Iris Affair.

Music

The title song, “Here Comes That Day” by Siouxsie Sioux was described by Gerard Gilbert in a review of the series in The i Paper as a "brassy Shirley Bassey-style blast" evoking James Bond movie soundtracks.

Broadcast and release

The eight-episode series premiered on 16 October 2025 on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first four episodes were also released on the streaming service Now the same day. Sky Group will also release the series in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Fremantle handles worldwide distribution of the series.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating based on five critic reviews.

In January 2026, Niamh Algar was nominated at the Irish Film & Television Awards for best actress.

References

External links