‘Trainspotting’ Gets Sequel TV Series Starring Robert Carlyle
This has to be one of the least likely franchises in history.
Trainspotting, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, centered on the lives of young heroin junkies in Scotland. The book became a 1996 movie by Danny Boyle, and it in turn became a breakthrough hit on the international arthouse scene, launching the careers of several of its actors, most prominently Ewan McGregor. The film was big enough, in fact, that two decades later it got a sequel, T2 Trainspotting, featuring much of the original cast and directed by Boyle.
Now it’s getting another sequel, this time on television and focused on the character of Begbie, played in both previous films by Robert Carlyle. The show is based on another Welsh novel, The Blade Artist. Here’s more on the story of the show, via Deadline:
The Blade Artist novel was published in 2016 and is set in LA and Edinburgh 20 years after the events of Trainspotting ... Now known as Jim Francis, Begbie is a reformed character who believes he has found the perfect life. But a return to Scotland for the funeral of a murdered son he hardly knows confronts him with a past he can barely recall and he soon discovers you can take the boy out of Edinburgh, but you can’t take Edinburgh out of the boy.
Welsh is involved as an executive producer, but Boyle isn’t mentioned in Deadline’s article.
T2 was a surprisingly satisfying sequel – I wrote a long essay about it the year it came out — and Carlyle was key to its success. Who wouldn’t want to see him play that character again? I mean, I’m kind of shocked Scottish heroin junkies have become a recurring series of films and television. But I’m not opposed to it.