Dream casting for TV version of comic's crime novel

Frankie Boyle has landed his dream star for the TV adaptation of his debut novel Meantime – in the shape of James McAvoy.

The X-Men star has confirmed that he's set to play drug addict-turned-amateur detective Felix McAveety in the upcoming Sky series.

Even before the book was published in 2022, Boyle wrote on Instagram: 'It's got to the stage where I could get a Scottish actor, because the main voice is Scottish, who could do this. Somebody said to me James McAvoy, if you have seen Split he could do it brilliantly but anyone else would detract from it.'

Former Shameless star McAvoy, who won acclaim for his portrayal of a corrupt, low-life cop in the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Filth, has now confirmed to the film magazine Empire that he's about to star in the adaptation, playing the Valium addict who begins investigating when his best friend is murdered in a Glasgow park.

Set in 2015, the year after Scotland's Independence Referendum, the darkly comic, picaresque satire features lines that Boyle has also used in his stand-up. Read Chortle's review here.

Expectation, the production company that made The Change and Alma's Not Normal, is expected to start shooting Meantime in Glasgow and London this month.

Boyle's fifth book, following non-fiction titles, the novel was nominated for Bloody Scotland's Debut of the Year Award for crime writing.

Speaking on Here Comes The Guillotine podcast recently Boyle revealed that his second novel has the working title Indisposed.

And writing in his newsletter, he said it would be 'a fairly jolly crime novel … It's really just supposed to be funny. I find you see novels billed as funny and the funny is only part of the intent, or a little low in the mix. This one is purely meant to be amusing, and it's good to have a very narrow goal sometimes.'

He also disclosed that the narrator is a 'famous horror/fantasy author', adding: 'I've had some fun writing plots for TV shows/films/books he's created. Indeed, there's a kind of dizzying amount of that at the moment and I might need to trim it down a little.

'Also, there has to be a certain amount of descriptive prose, certainly far more than my last book, as we have to believe in him as a writer. I've really loved doing that.'

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 27 Feb 2026