Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to score Sky Original series The Death of Bunny Munro

Sky today announces that internationally renowned musician and novelist Nick Cave, alongside long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, will compose the original score for the upcoming Clerkenwell Films-produced Sky Original drama The Death of Bunny Munro — a new six-part series based on Cave’s acclaimed second novel.

The original score leans into a raw, unruly energy - complete with the duo’s signature emotional intensity. It was recorded at Soundtree Music in Shoreditch, East London, and engineered by Luis Almau, a frequent collaborator of Cave and Ellis across their extensive film and documentary work. The Death of Bunny Munro is their latest score project, with other collaborations including The Proposition (2005), The Road (2009), Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022), and most recently the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black (2024).  

Starring Matt Smith (House of the Dragon, The Crown) in the titular role, The Death of Bunny Munro follows a sex-addicted door-to-door salesman and self-professed lothario who, after his wife’s death, takes his young son on a chaotic sales tour around Brighton and beyond, where he is forced to confront what kind of man — and father — he really is. Written by BAFTA winner Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy) and directed by Isabella Eklöf (Industry, Holiday), the series is produced by Clerkenwell Films in association with Sky Studios.

The announcement comes as Sky confirms a special preview event at the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival, held at the Royal Festival Hall, on 30 October 2025. The event will feature a screening of the first two episodes, followed by an exclusive on-stage conversation with Nick Cave and lead actor Matt Smith on the journey of bringing The Death of Bunny Munro from page to screen.

Synopsis

Following his wife Libby’s death by suicide, sex addicted door-to-door beauty salesman and self-professed lothario Bunny Munro (Matt Smith), finds himself saddled with his young son, Bunny Junior, and only a loose concept of parenting. As the two struggle to contain their grief in wildly different ways, Bunny takes Junior on the road for an increasingly out-of-control door-to-door sales tour around Brighton and the suburban towns of the Sussex Coast.

Bunny bounces from one sales pitch to the next, trying to seduce any woman he meets, while Junior kills time talking to the ghost of his mother and grappling with the dawning realisation that his dad isn’t just fallible, he’s a fucking mess. As Bunny starts to unravel, he realises he must do something to rescue his son from his own outdated notions of what it is to be a man; to save him from becoming another Bunny Munro.

Adapted from Nick Cave’s acclaimed novel, The Death of Bunny Munro is both a wild cautionary tale and a tender portrait of the relationship between father and son.

For further information please contact: 

Molly Wyatt: Molly.Wyatt@sky.uk & Bella di Lorenzo: Isabella.dilorenzo@sky.uk

Notes for Editors

Cast

Matt Smith (House of the Dragon, The Crown) will star as Bunny Munro and also serves as executive producer. Rafael Mathé will make his television debut starring as Bunny Junior. Sarah Greene (Bad Sisters, Rosie) as Libby, Johann Myers (Somewhere Boy,Without Sin) as Poodle, Robert Glenister (Sherwood, Hustle) as Geoffrey, Alice Feetham (Boiling Point, Save Me) as Yvonne, David Threlfall (Shameless, Funny Woman) as Bunny Snr, Lindsay Duncan (Truelove, The Morning Show) as Doris Pennington and Elizabeth Berrington (Last Night in Soho, In Bruges) as Charlotte Parnovar. 

Series Credits

The Death of Bunny Munro is produced by Clerkenwell Films, part of BBC Studios, in association with Sky Studios. Commissioning Editor, Manpreet Dosanjh, is Executive Producer for Sky Studios. Petra Fried, Ed Macdonald and Emily Harrison are Executive Producers for Clerkenwell Films. Matt Smith, Nick Cave, Pete Jackson and Isabella Eklöf also serve as Executive Producers. The Producer is Matthew Mulot.

About Nick Cave

Perhaps best known as lead singer and songwriter with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave’s artistic output is prolific and ever-evolving. Over a creative career that spans more than 40 years, Cave has worked across a diverse number of disciplines; as a solo and collaborative musician, a score composer, a writer of books, film scripts and his weekly mailer The Red Hand Files, and more recently as a ceramic artist.

About Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, author and composer, best known for his work with collaborator and bandmate Nick Cave, in both the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Both solo and alongside Cave, he is a multi-award-winning film composer whose soundtracks include The Proposition, The Road, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Mustang and most recently I’m Still Here and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. His own band, Dirty Three, has released eight studio albums since 1984, and he is an in-demand producer and songwriter, working with artists including Marianne Faithfull, Jupiter & Okwess and Tinariwen. In 2021, he co-founded Ellis Park, Sumatra, a forever home for animals with special needs.

About Sky Studios

Sky Studios is the home of Sky Original Drama and Comedy.

We develop, commission and produce unmissable programming for Sky’s customers across Europe. Our teams partner with the best indies and talent globally, to drive creative excellence and tell original stories that are loved by audiences the world over.

Our Sky Originals include Emmy-nominated hit, The Day of the Jackal with Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, Sweetpea starring Ella Purnell, and Mussolini: Son of the Century, directed by Joe Wright. Upcoming Sky Originals include The Iris Affair, The Death of Bunny Munro, Under Salt Marsh and Amadeus. Alongside Sky Original Comedy and Drama, Sky Studios is home to some of the world’s most exciting production companies including Blast! Films, True North and Love Productions.

We also operate Sky Studios Elstree, a brand-new film and TV studio with 12 sound stages, representing a significant investment in the UK and European creative economy.

About Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell Films produce award-winning, high-end television for both UK and international broadcasters and streaming platforms. Credits include Baby Reindeer (Netflix) which won multiple awards including 3 BAFTAs, 6 Emmys and 3 Golden Globes, The End of the F***ing World (Netflix/Channel 4) and Misfits (Channel 4), both of which won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. Forthcoming series from the two-time Peabody Award-winning production company include The Death of Bunny Munro (Sky) adapted from the novel by Nick Cave and starring Matt Smith. Clerkenwell Films is part of BBC Studios.

About the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival London Literature Festival is the longest-running celebration of the written and spoken word of its kind in the capital, presenting prestigious names alongside rising literary stars, every autumn. This year's festival (Tue 21 Oct - Sun 2 Nov) includes a specially curated day of events by Rebecca Lucy Taylor a.k.a Self Esteem. For more information, please visit https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/events/london-literature-festival

About the Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying 11 acres along the river and its 4 venues anchor London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to six Resident Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonic Orchestra). www.southbankcentre.co.uk/