All-star cast join Keeley Hawes in new ITV drama Finding AliceJoanna Lumley, Nigel Havers, Jason Merrells, Gemma Jones, Kenneth Cranham, Sharon Rooney join six-part drama as production begins in London this week
10 January 2020: ITV today announced an all-star line-up joining award-winning actor Keeley Hawes in new contemporary drama Finding Alice. The six-part drama created by Roger Goldby, Keeley Hawes and Simon Nye, and written by Roger and Simon, follows a woman whose husband's sudden and accidental death unearths a trail of secrets, debt, suspicion and criminality.
The series will be produced by RED Production Company (a STUDIOCANAL company) in association with Bright Pictures TV, Buddy Club Productions and Genial Productions.
BAFTA-nominated Hawes (The Durrells, Bodyguard, Line of Duty) plays the role of Alice, and will be joined by a star-studded cast including Joanna Lumley (Gangster Granny, Absolutely Fabulous) and Nigel Havers (Benidorm, Coronation Street) as Alice's parents Sarah and Roger, and Jason Merrells (Agatha Raisin, Safe House) as her husband Harry.
Also joining the cast are Gemma Jones (Gentleman Jack, Unforgotten) and Kenneth Cranham (Hatton Garden, Bancroft) as Minnie and Gerry, Alice's in-laws. Rounding out the core cast is Isabella Pappas (Paranoid) as Alice and Harry's 16-year-old daughter Charlotte, and Sharon Rooney (The Capture, No Offence) as Harry's sister Nicola.
The series (6 x 60') focuses on Alice's honest, raw, blackly comic journey of grief, love and life after the death of her husband Harry. After moving into their newly finished dream house, Harry dies after falling down the stairs. Having designed the weird and wonderful, yet impractical house before he died, the move is one more disorientation for Alice, alongside her sense of loss and abandonment. Her beloved partner of 20 years is no more, and now she can't even find the fridge. 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.
Nicola Shindler, RED Production Company CEO and executive producer added; To have such a strong calibre of actors join the cast alongside Keeley to breathe life into these complex characters is incredibly exciting, and I look forward to audiences meeting them.
Finding Alice will be executive produced by RED Production Company founder Nicola Shindler (Butterfly, Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & Bailey) alongside Simon Nye (The Durrells, Tommy Cooper: Not Like That Like This, How Do You Want Me?) Keeley Hawes and Roger Goldby (The Durrells, The Musketeers, Call The Midwife) who is directing episodes 1, 2 and 3. Juliet May (Motherland) also directs. The drama will be produced by Margot Gavan Duffy (The Queen and I, Two Doors Down, Boy Meets Girl).
Finding Alice will be internationally distributed by Studiocanal.
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RED PRODUCTION COMPANY
RED Production Company was set up by Nicola Shindler in 1998 to work with the best writers on modern, innovative and entertaining programming. The Manchester-based indie has since produced some of the UK's most popular drama series working with critically acclaimed writers including Russell T Davies, Bill Gallagher, Sally Wainwright, Danny Brocklehurst, Dan Sefton and Sean Conway.
RED Production Company has produced some of the UK's most successful and award-winning dramas, including Russell T Davies' Cucumber and Queer As Folk, Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, Danny Brocklehurst's Come Home and Ordinary Lies, Lenny Henry's Danny and the Human Zoo, Dan Sefton's Trust Me, Tony Marchant's Butterfly, Harlan Coben's Safe written by Danny Brocklehurst, Russell T Davies' Years and Years for BBC One and Traces, written by Amelia Bullmore, for UKTV. Forthcoming series include Sarah Solemani's Ridley Road for BBC One, Harlan Coben's The Stranger for Netflix and Boys (w/t) by Russell T Davies for Channel 4.
RED Production Company is part of STUDIOCANAL's international production network, which includes TANDEM Productions in Germany, STUDIOCANAL Original in France and BAMB PRODUCCIONES in Spain.
STUDIOCANAL
STUDIOCANAL, a 100% affiliate of CANAL+ Group held by Vivendi, is Europe's leader in production, rights acquisition, distribution and international sales of feature films and TV series, and operates directly in all three major European markets, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. STUDIOCANAL is actively developing and distributing high-end TV series through its network of award-winning subsidiary production companies, which includes Germany's TANDEM Productions (Take Two) and the UK's RED Production Company (Safe).
BRIGHT PICTURES TV
Bright Pictures TV was set up in 2019 by Roger Goldby as a home for his writing and directing for television. Finding Alice is the company's first commission.
BUDDY CLUB PRODUCTIONS
Finding Alice will be the second project for Keeley Hawes' production company Buddy Club Productions. The first, ITV's new two-part drama Honour, will see Keeley star as well as executive produce.
Keeley herself was twice nominated at this year's British Academy Television Awards for her leading role in Netflix and the BBC's Bodyguard. She was also in consideration for her supporting role in Mrs Wilson as well as for her much-loved role of Louisa Durrell in the hugely popular ITV series The Durrells, also for PBS Masterpiece.
She has completed filming Working Title and Ben Wheatley's Rebecca as well as Philippa Lowthorpe's film dramedy Misbehaviour.
GENIAL PRODUCTIONS
Genial Productions was set up by Simon Nye and Sophie Clarke-Jervoise in 2018 to produce television series across all
