ITV Commissions ‘Finding Alice’ From Roger Goldby & Simon Nye Starring Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes returns to ITV once again in ‘Finding Alice’, a new six-part contemporary drama/comedy from ‘The Durrells’ writers Roger Goldby and Simon Nye, and produced by Red Production Company, in association with Bright Pictures TV, Buddy Club Productions and Genial Productions.
The series focuses upon Alice’s honest, raw, blackly comic journey of grief, love and life after the death of her husband Harry. His accidental sudden death kicks up a storm of secrets and mess, debt, suspicion and criminality which Alice is forced to confront in order to survive. Harry dies after falling down the stairs when they move into their newly finished dream house. Harry designed it, so it’s weird and wonderful, and impractical, and one more disorientation for Alice, to go with her sense of loss and abandonment. Her beloved partner of 20 years is no more, and now she can’t open the garage doors.
If that were her only problem… Men have a habit of hiding stuff that they don’t want to deal with, and Alice discovers that Harry was worse than most.
“This is a brilliant script – emotionally truthful and darkly funny,” commented ITV’s Head of Drama, Polly Hill who commissioned the series. “It’s about family and grief and introduces us to the wonderfully original character of Alice. The show has been developed with Keeley Hawes, and Alice was written for her, and she is going to be unmissable in the role. I’m delighted to be working with Simon Nye, Roger Goldby and Nicola Shindler to bring Finding Alice to ITV next year.”
‘Finding Alice’ will be produced by Red Production Company, with founder Nicola Shindler (‘Butterfly’, ‘Happy Valley’, ‘Last Tango in Halifax’, ‘Scott & Bailey’) taking the role of executive producer alongside Roger Goldby (‘The Durrells’, ‘The Musketeers’, ‘Call The Midwife’ as Director), Simon Nye (‘The Durrells’, ‘Tommy Cooper: Not Like That Like This’, ‘How Do You Want Me?’) and Keeley Hawes (‘Bodyguard’, ‘The Durrells’, ‘Line of Duty’, ‘Honour’).
“When Keeley, Roger and Simon came to me with Finding Alice I was so excited to find a project about a complex, flawed and funny woman in such extreme circumstances who I felt an audience would fall in love with,” adds Shindler. “This is exactly the kind of drama I love to make at Red and look forward to starting shooting.”
Red will produce ‘Finding Alice’ in association with Bright Pictures TV, Buddy Club Productions and Genial Productions, which has a minority investment from ITV Studios. The drama will be produced by Margot Gavan Duffy (The Queen and I, Two Doors Down, Boy Meets Girl as Executive Producer) with Roger Goldby directing episodes 1 to 3 and Juliet May (Motherland, Last Tango in Halifax, Call the Midwife) directing episodes 4 to 6.
“I think there is something so particular and compelling about watching a strong female-led drama, we are so lucky to have Keeley playing Alice, she has an incredible depth of performance combined with a pitch-perfect instinct for comedy,” said co-writer Roger Goldby. “Keeley will bring Alice to life beautifully to make Finding Alice heartfelt, moving and funny.”
‘Finding Alice’ will begin filming in January 2020.
