Callum Turner’s ‘Outstanding’ First TV Drama Is Climbing Netflix’s Top 10 — With Helen McCrory in a Complicated Three-Part Age-Gap Romance

Long before Masters of the Air, The Capture and his growing reputation as one of Britain’s leading period-drama stars, Callum Turner made his television debut opposite Helen McCrory.

Now, more than a decade later, that early performance is finding a new audience.

The three-part relationship drama Leaving is climbing Netflix’s Top 10 chart, with viewers rediscovering the series and hailing it as an “outstanding drama.”

Turner was just 22 when he landed the role.

McCrory, already an established star, played the married woman whose unexpected connection with his character threatens to unravel the life she has built.

One Wedding Changes Two Lives

McCrory plays Julie Ranmore, a 44-year-old hotel manager trapped in an unhappy marriage.

Turner is Aaron, a 24-year-old university graduate struggling to find work and direction.

Their paths cross at Aaron’s brother’s wedding, held at the hotel where Julie works.

A connection develops during the reception.

Soon afterwards, Aaron takes a job at the same hotel.

What initially appears to be an unlikely friendship becomes something much more dangerous as Julie and Aaron begin a passionate affair.

With a 20-year age difference, Julie’s marriage and their workplace tying them together, the relationship quickly becomes far more complicated than either might have anticipated.

Helen McCrory Leads a Familiar British Cast

For many viewers discovering the series on Netflix now, Helen McCrory will immediately be recognizable from her later work, particularly Peaky Blinders.

McCrory, who died in 2021, leads the drama alongside Turner as Julie.

The supporting cast includes Sean Gallagher as Michael, Deborah Findlay as Vanessa and Charity Wakefield as Phoebe.

Bart Edwards plays Tom, Amelia Young appears as Maxine and Sandra Huggett plays Angela.

But at the heart of the three episodes is the increasingly complicated relationship between Julie and Aaron.

It Was Callum Turner’s First Television Role

The series has gained another layer of interest because of where it sits in Turner’s career.

Leaving, released in 2012, marked his TV debut.

Just two years later, Turner appeared in the war drama Queen and Country, a performance that helped earn him recognition as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit.

His career continued to grow with roles in Glue, The Capture and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

He played Frank Churchill in the 2020 adaptation of Emma and later portrayed American rower Joe Rantz in The Boys in the Boat.

More recently, audiences have known him as John Bucky Egan in Masters of the Air.

That makes watching Leaving today an opportunity to see Turner before the roles that would make him internationally recognizable.

From His TV Debut to Leading-Man Status

Turner, now 36, has become particularly associated with period dramas.

His growing profile has even placed him among the actors frequently mentioned in speculation surrounding the future of James Bond, alongside names including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Mescal and Jack Lowden.

But Leaving captures him at a completely different stage.

Instead of an established leading man, viewers get a 22-year-old actor taking on his first television role opposite one of Britain’s most acclaimed performers.

And more than a decade later, that performance is suddenly back in front of a major audience.

Only Three Episodes to Watch

Another reason the drama lends itself so easily to rediscovery is its length.

There are only three episodes.

That means viewers can experience Julie and Aaron’s entire story without committing to multiple seasons or dozens of hours.

The setup is equally immediate: an unhappy marriage, a chance encounter at a wedding and an attraction complicated by age, work and existing relationships.

Netflix’s enormous library can make forgotten British dramas easy to overlook.

But Leaving is currently moving in the opposite direction.

Fourteen years after Callum Turner made his television debut opposite Helen McCrory, their three-part age-gap drama is climbing Netflix’s chart — giving a new generation the chance to discover one of his earliest performances.