Pearce Quigley leads Small Prophets as Michael Sleep, Lauren Patel plays his young coworker Kacey, and creator Mackenzie Crook appears as their disliked DIY-store manager Gordon.
Those three roles form the show’s working comic triangle. Michael wants an answer about his missing partner, Kacey helps with his impossible experiment, and Gordon represents the ordinary job that keeps interrupting their secret.
- Release date: October 7, 2026 outside the UK
- Episode: Season 1
- Title: Small Prophets
- Genre: Comedy
- Streaming on: Apple TV
Pearce Quigley is Michael Sleep
Michael has lived in suspended grief since Clea disappeared seven years earlier. He works in a DIY store, visits his father Brian and holds onto the hope that Clea might return.
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An old recipe involving rainwater, manure and alchemy gives him a new plan. Michael tries to create homunculi, magical spirits said to predict the future, because he wants them to answer whether he will see Clea again.
Lauren Patel is Kacey
Kacey is Michael’s younger coworker and the person drawn into his garden-shed experiment. Their unlikely friendship grows partly through a shared dislike of Gordon, but Apple’s synopsis makes clear that their connection is not limited to complaining about work.
Her practical presence prevents Michael’s search from becoming completely solitary. She can challenge his choices, help him manage the experiment and see warning signs that grief may cause him to miss.
Mackenzie Crook is Gordon and the show’s creator
Crook plays Gordon, the store manager positioned as a source of daily frustration. He also created, wrote and directed the series, giving the gentle supernatural comedy a consistent authorial voice.
Michael Palin plays Brian, whose recipe starts the experiment. Sophie Willan and Jon Pointing play nosy neighbors intrigued by activity in Michael’s shed, while Paul Kaye is also part of the ensemble.
The casting works because each role pulls Michael in a different direction. Kacey makes the experiment collaborative, while Gordon keeps dragging its supernatural stakes back into the irritations and obligations of an ordinary shift.
Crook’s creative control matters as much as his role on screen. Writing, directing and playing Gordon lets him establish the same restrained comic rhythm across the workplace scenes and the stranger activity in Michael’s shed.
Palin’s Brian connects the present experiment to family history rather than serving as a detached guest star. His recipe gives Michael a method, but the son still has to decide how much of his life to surrender to the answer he wants. That choice keeps grief, not magic alone, at the center of the ensemble for everyone.
The cast grounds an alchemy story in grief, work and friendship. Which performance are you most looking forward to when Small Prophets reaches Apple TV? Comment below.
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