EXCLUSIVE: Grey’s Anatomy star Kevin McKidd and Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad) have been cast in the BBC’s The Young Team, a homecoming project for McKidd and director Paul McGuigan.
The pair will star alongside a clutch of young talent who have appeared in the likes of Mobland, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Half Man.
Directed by Lucky Number Slevin’s McGuigan and distributed by Fox Entertainment Global, The Young Team follows teenager Azzy Williams and his pals, who roam the streets of Airdrie in Scotland on a Friday night, bottles of tonic wine in hand and techno playing from tinny speakers. Azzy is ready to smoke, pop pills, drink wine and fight. He longs to become fully initiated into the local gang. But when Azzy, determined to prove himself, makes a bold move, a brutal gang conflict ensues with Azzy very firmly at its heart.
McKidd is Azzy’s inspirational headteacher, Mr McGiver, while Fraser plays his longsuffering mum, Angela.
Alongside McKidd and Fraser, the show has cast Jakob James Smith (MobLand) as Azzy, Connor Newall (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Mint) as Big Kenzie and Scot Greenan (Half Man, The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping) as Eck. They are joined by emerging talent discovered through an open casting process across Scotland’s North Lanarkshire region including Beinn Catchpole as Whytey, David Russell as Broonie, Mick Mack as Wee Kenzie, Caiden Henderson-Brown as Addison, Lewis Ray as Danny and Jack Mooney as Wee Toffey.
McKidd, a Scottish native who played Dr. Owen Hunt in Grey’s Anatomy for two decades, recently spoke with Deadline about next steps for his Ferryman Films indie, along with his new project The Only Suspect. Fraser, meanwhile, is probably best known for playing Lydia in Breaking Bad. Her most recent BBC project was Mint, which she featured in alongside Newall.
Produced by Tattooist of Auschwitz maker Synchronicity, The Young Team is something of a homecoming project for both McKidd and McGuigan, whose credits include Lucky Number Slevin, Gangster No. 1 and Sherlock. It was revealed alongside two other Scottish shows last year when the BBC axed long-running soap River City, at which point the BBC said it would spend £100M ($133M) on drama from Scotland over three years.
Armstrong is one of Scotland’s most talented up-and-coming authors and he said the casting process had been “incredible to see coming alive.” “With both authenticity of language and a real sense of place at the forefront, they’ve built an amazingly talented group of young Scottish actors who, working with director Paul McGuigan on his homecoming project, will deliver something really special,” he added.
McGuigan said: “The Young Team has brought me back to direct in Scotland for the first time in 30 years and I can’t think of a more fitting way to mark my professional homecoming. It’s a privilege to work with our Young Team cast, an exciting new generation of working-class talent selected from an open audition process that saw over 1,000 young people apply. I cannot wait to see our Young Team characters come to life, as we bring Graeme’s iconic novel to the screen.”