The vow factor
An Irish wedding in Tenerife is the setting for murder mystery These Sacred Vows, in which each episode explores the story from a different character’s perspective. Writer and director John Butler reveals how he marries comedy and drama in the six-parter.
Described as a collection of six interwoven films, Irish comedy-drama series These Sacred Vows follows events in the run-up to a chaotic wedding that leads to the discovery of a dead body just hours after the happy couple say “I do.”
Revolving around an Irish wedding in Spain – comprising a week of day-drinking and chaotic nights where secret fears, jealousy and desire bubble to the surface – the story opens on the morning after the ceremony when the body of a priest is found floating face-down in the swimming pool at the young guests’ villa. Then over the course of six episodes, the action jumps back in time to revisit the key moments of a wild week, with each episode picking up the story from the perspective of a different character before they all come together for the wedding in episode six.
“It’s become a pretty full version of what was intended – something that comes into the world as a procedural and continues to have a dead body in the background but starts to explore character and different people’s perspectives on what’s happening,” creator John Butler tells DQ midway through post-production.
“Keeping those two things in mind at the same time, and the comedy and the drama in mind at the same time, has been fascinating. There are little things that are happening that are new to me when I’m watching it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this feels much more dramatic than I thought it was,’ or, ‘I didn’t think this would play quite as funny.’ But these are all quite enjoyable discoveries.”
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor stars as Father Vincent, with Justine Mitchell and Jason O’Mara as the bride’s parents, alongside India Mullen, Adam John Richardson, Tom Hanson, Jade Auguste, Aaron Heffernan and Aoife Hinds. The cast also features Irish comedians Shane Daniel Byrne and Catherine Bohart.
Commissioned by Ireland’s RTÉ and due to air in 2026, These Sacred Vows is written and directed by Butler, whose TV credits include Your Bad Self, Finding Joy and The Outlaws. Produced by Treasure Entertainment in association with Screen Ireland, it is distributed internationally by Banijay Rights. Here, Butler tells DQ about the idea behind the series, his interest in following multiple points of view and why viewers won’t see the bride and groom.
What are the origins of the project?
Irish weddings are bananas. Even the most middle-of-the road Irish wedding creates drama and comedy, and they can get quite raucous. I have zero interest in the story of a bride and groom on their big day (happiness writes white, after all), but those at the fringes of a wedding – and their experiences – are quite fascinating.
Introduce us to the story and the main characters we meet.
We enter the world through Father Vincent O’Keefe, a Catholic priest who has been flown over to officiate at a distant friend’s daughter’s happy day. Irish Catholic priests don’t have the best reputation anymore, and Vincent has no idea why he’s been asked to do this, but he will find out… Episode two introduces Cormac, a young gay schoolteacher struggling after recent violent trauma. In episode three, we see the world through the eyes of Sandra Byrne, mother of the bride, who is suffering a profound identity crisis. In episode four, we meet Ava, Cormac’s best friend, who is keeping a secret from her uptight English boyfriend Felix. Episode five is seen from the point of view of Elodie, a French exchange student living with the Byrnes and witnessing the mania of the Irish for the first time. And episode six is seen from all perspectives, on the day of the wedding itself.
The show has an ambitious structure, comprising “six interwoven films.” What was the thinking behind this?
Deep subjectivity is fascinating to me, and underused on TV. There’s a clear ‘A’ story here to follow, of course, but why not jump from person to person and see exactly what the approach of a wedding does to different people while you’re at it?
What was the writing process on the show?
I wrote the first two episodes and a series outline on spec, and then assembled a small writers room to generate story for the other four episodes, all of which I wrote. When a show has multiple points of view, that needs to be represented in a writers room, but ultimately These Sacred Vows has to be the vision of one person.
How did you approach mapping out the six episodes, and the tricks you would play on the audience in terms of observations of different characters and events?
I always wanted to make it about what people’s assumptions would be about various characters, and then to subsequently reveal that those characters were thinking a little bit differently. It’s fun playing with people’s assumptions. I always think the best films do that. They seem to know what you think about a person at a particular point in time, and then they subvert it a bit.
I always knew it was five episodes on successive days from different points of view, and I always knew the last episode would be on the day of the wedding from everyone’s point of view. I always knew you’d never see the bride and groom, because I’ve been to 100 Irish weddings now and they’re the least interesting people in the room because they’re happy. So who cares? That was the loose structure all the way through the show.
How did you decide whose perspectives to follow?
Well, I always wanted there to be a gay man and his female best friend, because I find that dynamic really fascinating and very rarely written about or seen on TV. And I’m always interested in the value of platonic friendship. That’s a really lovely thing to explore. My films have always been concerned with that, and I like that in the context of a wedding where romantic love is obviously put to the forefront. I always thought it would be nice to have a story where it’s at a wedding, which is about romance, but the story is looking at friendship and asking the question, ‘Aren’t these relationships just as important?’ Then I always wanted to do something about the mother of the bride, and I also felt it would be nice to do something from the point of view of a priest in a day and age when they’re reviled, probably, in Ireland, and the hypocrisy of a Catholic wedding – because most people who have Catholic weddings now aren’t, in fact, Catholic. I just thought there was a nice irony to push out there and explore.
Did any other films or series inspire the structure?
I’ve never seen that structure before, to be honest. But obviously there are certain comparisons to be made. On the surface, it’s maybe similar to The White Lotus, although these are strictly middle-class people. It’s not a show about extreme privilege; it’s a show about the people in the middle.
In terms of inspiration beyond that, I really like comedy drama. I adore Robert Altman’s films, and Short Cuts was an interesting reference. Maybe a little bit of Twin Peaks, and maybe a little Boogie Nights while we’re at it.
Where does the comedy come from in the series?
I’m a comedy-drama guy, so everything’s funny and everything’s serious all the time and simultaneously. These are real people. It’s always struck me, when you’re watching procedure, why does nobody ever say anything funny? I just don’t understand that. It seems like there’s an obligation to drain all the funny things out of a show in order to make it seem real. But people say funny stuff all the time. There are a few jokes, but it’s usually just a comedy of humanity, or humane observation.
How do you like to balance writing and directing duties?
I have to be practical when I’m writing. If I put a helicopter in the script, the director [in me] taps me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Are you sure about that?’ So I have to be real, and it’s helpful. Having a singular vision that carries from the writing stage to the directing stage and into the edit is really valuable. Lots of people I’ve worked with in the course of making this have said that too. I don’t have to kick any decisions upstairs or get people’s approval. You can write a scene on the day you’re shooting, you can shoot it, you can know where it goes in the show and it’s your responsibility as to whether it works or not. But it’s singular. It’s one voice. There’s a lot of responsibility there. It’s also a pleasure and a joy and it’s thrilling to take something from the desk through the filming location and through the edit and onto the air. It’s a great experience.
Why did you choose to film in Tenerife, and how have you used the island as the setting?
There’s the obvious answer first – the tax break! But Irish people have been holidaying in Tenerife for decades, buying homes, playing golf, wintering out. And Irish weddings abroad are a very popular phenomenon. This is a middle-class wedding, and the setting really fits that.
From a technical standpoint, how did you film the show, and did that change through the different perspectives?
No, it’s the same. That’s the thing that unifies each perspective. I thought that was really important, to make sure all of these distinct world views were seen in the same way by the audience, so it’s very filmic. We shot on anamorphic lenses. There’s a lot of direct POV, a lot of Steadicam, and there’s a lot of zoom as well, because that’s how we look at things. So it’s very subjective. The connecting aesthetic is very important so that people know what the show is from week to week.
Is there potential for a second season?
I would love to do a second season. We’ll see where we end up. But what attracts me is the idea of promises; promises that are made and kept and broken. That is the central thematic idea of the show, and that’s very fertile ground for a dramedy. So it could come back, of course it could. But I’ll just continue to edit the first one for a while.