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.
Contents
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 Deputy Commissioner Claude Baptiste, a corrupt Polizia di Stato detective and Krauss's partner
Salvatore Ruocco as Bernardo De Santis, a corrupt Polizia di Stato detective
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
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.
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