TV show version of hit Irish crime thriller novel in the works

After the 2026 novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize, its author told JOE that a screen adaptation is in 'early development'.

Released in 2026, the novel is the 28-year-old Dublin writer's debut. Its story follows Tony Ward, a young criminal who returns to the Irish capital after five years in hiding.

TV adaptation of Djamel White's All Them Dogs in the works

Keen to reinstate himself in the West Dublin gangland scene, he gets the opportunity to work side by side with Darren ‘Flute’ Walsh, a top enforcer of notorious crime boss Aengus Lavelle.

"Biting off more than he can chew has never bothered Tony Ward, but Flute Walsh is not the meek, quiet boy Tony remembers from school. Brooding, stoic, and unpredictably dangerous, Tony finds himself drawn to his new associate in more ways than one," the plot synopsis adds.

"With retribution from his past actions always close in the rearview, the protection offered by Flute’s standing in the gang is crucial. But how safe is Tony really, when a mutual attraction starts to complicate matters?"

A hit with audiences and with critics, All Them Dogs was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026. This honours the best works of sustained fiction in the English language.

The judges called the novel a "mouthy, ballsy and bracingly unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks".

They added: "It charts the lives, loyalties and dealings of a semi-organised crime world. Yet, the novel’s real achievement lies in something quieter and more easily overlooked beneath the bullets and bone-breaking dramatics: a subtle, textured humanity woven among the violent hyper-masculine protagonists."

When JOE's editor Aoife Moore spoke to White, he confirmed a TV show version of the novel is being developed. That said, it's still early in the process, and he doesn't know when it will arrive on screens.

On this, the author said: "It's still in the early stages of development, and, you know, a lot can happen, and a lot can change. So nothing is set in stone.

"But the good thing to know is that there are people that want to make it happen and are trying to make it happen. They're using their resources.

"There are people trying to bring Tony to the TV, and they're trying their best. I think they're doing a great job. But these things can go any way. So I don't know when, and I don't know how."

On how he made All Them Dogs feel so authentic, White told JOE he tried to write places and people he had familiarity with and make them feel as true as possible.

He explained: "There's a great capacity for energy in writing with the way the people in this book talk, and in terms of the setting, it is like suburbia in that regard. So, you've got these different walks of life kind of all on top of each other... That was just always interesting for me being from there because it exposed me to such a litany of different lives, people from different life experiences.

"Then, maybe going to college or as I grew up and met people from maybe more kind of distinctly middle-class backgrounds, I realised that they haven't been exposed to the same things that I thought were just the fabric of life. Not to say I had any sort of rough upbringing or anything like that, but there was just a balance.

"I felt like I had a very balanced experience where I grew up, and I realised coming into my later teens and early 20s that that's not the same for everyone, and that was kind of an awakening for me.

"So setting the book there just felt like I was following something that interested me. So, you just get these impulses, and you go with them, and you see where it takes you."

White also talked about his lead character Tony and how he is "driven by a sense of wanting to belong".

"You get the sense that that didn't exactly manifest in the home with his brother," he explained. "You might think, second to a father, an older brother would be this kind of guiding light, and he isn't. He's come up short of that.

"So, there's a sense of rejection there from the get-go... [Tony] had... gotten out of the gangland environment that he entered when he was quite young. You might even say he was groomed into it. It depends on how you read it.

"But there's a feeling that he's had where... he has felt like he's belonged, and that's what he's chasing for this whole book. He's chasing it with someone else. But this kind of measure of a man has come out of a feeling that he had when he was first accepted by a group of men."