From Succession to The Sopranos, Dynasty to Downton Abbey, House of Gucci to House of the Dragon, and now House of Guinness, it's clear that audiences love nothing more than a really juicy family drama. So those mourning the end of the scandalous trials and tribulations of Succession's Roy family (which was loosely based on the infamous Murdoch family) can rejoice, with the release of a new dynasty-core series about the famous family behind the Guinness brewing company in 19th-century Ireland and New York.
What is House of Guinness about?
House of Guinness tracks the consequences following the death of Benjamin Guinness, the head honcho responsible for the unprecedented success of the Guinness brewery, and the feuds and fighting between his four adult children, Arthur, Edward, Anne and Ben. Made up of eight one-hour episodes, the series has been made by Kudos and is being released on Netflix. Created and written by Steven Knight, best known for creating the epic period drama Peaky Blinders, House of Guinness is directed by Tom Shankland (House of Cards, The Serpent) and Mounia Akl (Boiling Point), with filming beginning in the summer of 2024. “The Guinness dynasty is known the world over – wealth, poverty, power, influence, and great tragedy are all intertwined to create a rich tapestry of material to draw from," comments Steven. "I’ve always been fascinated by their stories and am excited to bring the characters to life for the world to see.”
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Who is starring in House of Guinness?
As is so often the case with silver screen epics nowadays, the TV show is a star-studded affair James Norton (Happy Valley) stars as the charismatic Guinness brewery foreman Sean Rafferty , Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes), as Edward, the ambitious youngest Guinness sibling and Anthony Boyle (Say Nothing, Masters of the Air) as Arthur, the sophisticated eldest brother. They're joined by David Wilmot (Bodkin, Embers) as Bonnie Champion, the devious racketeer who distributes Guinness in Dublin, Danielle Galligan (Shadow and Bone, Game of Thrones) as Lady Olivia, Arthur's intended, Seamus O’Hara (The Northmen, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) as the revolutionary Fenian Patrick Cochrane, and Fionn O’Shea (Normal People), as the neglected middle Guinness brother.
Where are the Guinness family now?
The Guinness family remains a prominent one today, with several scions of the original brewing dynasty gracing the pages of House & Garden. Amber Guinness has continued the hospitality arm of the family legacy in a small way, as a chef and author. Her mother, Camilla Guinness, is a successful interior designer, whose house in Tuscany was featured in Robyn Lea's book A Room of Her Own in 2023. Son of Hon. Erskine Stuart Richard Guinness and grandson to Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne who was heir to part of the family business, we spoke to Arthur Guinness, who fittingly met his wife Hannah Weiland (creator of the successful fashion brand Shrimps) at the pub. “It's exciting that my ancestors are to be featured in the next instalment of ‘dynastycore'. A 19th-century Logan Roy who loves pints? What’s not to like?" says Arthur, who was named after the original Master Brewer and pioneer at Guinness. “We only hope that he and his progeny escape the Netflix writers' room with slightly more grace,” he adds.
Where was House of Guinness filmed?
With so much drama unfolding across Ireland and New York, the show required a diverse roster of filming locations.
The show kicked off in Cheshire in the summer of 2024. Cheshire is a rural English county in the northwest of the UK, just south of Manchester. With a dynamic range of beautiful countryside and picturesque historic villages like Alderley Edge, it's no surprise that the show's producers selected Cheshire as one of the filming locations. The production company Kudos Knight (founded by the show's creator) is also based in Liverpool, making Cheshire a handy stand-in for rural Ireland.
Located in Greater Manchester, eight miles south-east of Manchester's city centre, Stockport is a suburb known for its architecture. With plenty of historic areas and buildings (like St. Peter's Church and Stockport Viaduct, which is the largest brick structure in the UK) Stockport could be easily transformed to match the 1860s setting of the show. The suburb also played a major part in the industrial revolution, with many of the factories and industrial buildings remaining, which could have been useful substitutes for the Guinness factory, which was in fact a a four-acre brewery site in the heart of Dublin city.
As is often the case with TV shows shooting in public places, it wasn't long before social media caught wind of filming in Liverpool. People took to TikTok in particular to show glimpses of filming taking place outside St. George's Hall in Liverpool, which is a Grade II listed municipal building in the Stepney area of the city.
The Northern Quarter is a cultural hub of Manchester, known for its independent restaurants, queer bars and vintage shopping. The historic architecture makes it ripe for transformation, and it has doubled as New York a few times in TV shows, as well as providing the backdrop for both Peaky Blinders and Sherlock Holmes. This time, though, the district will stand in for 19th-century Dublin, with pigs, market stalls, carts, carriages and vintage shopfronts taking over Dale Street.
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Anne Mensah, Vice-President of Content at Netflix UK, said that the show has “all the power of Peaky Blinders but the scale and the sweep of a true family saga. Set in the UK and the US, we cannot wait to see this realised.”
