‘Happy Valley’ Star James Norton To Headline ITV, StudioCanal Baby Swap Series ‘Playing Nice’

EXCLUSIVE: Happy Valley actor James Norton has been set to lead an ITV and StudioCanal adaptation of JP Delaney’s bestselling novel Playing Nice.

Norton will star in the four-part limited series alongside Niamh Algar (Mary and George), James McArdle (Mare of Easttown), and Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey).

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Norton, a BAFTA nominee who has been tipped to play James Bond, also serves as executive producer on Playing Nice through his Banijay-backed production outfit Rabbit Track Pictures.

Based on the book of the same name, the series follows two couples who discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up.

Set against the sweeping backdrop of Cornwall, they face an agonizing dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?

Pete (Norton) and Maddie (Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple: Miles (McArdle) and Lucy (Brown Findlay). All four agree a solution, but it becomes clear that hidden motives are at play.

Grace Ofori-Attah, the writer of ITV drama Malpractice, has penned the series. Kate Hewitt (One Day) is directing all four episodes. Production is underway in Cornwall.

ITV drama commissioner Helen Perry said: “Playing Nice is an enthralling thriller with a knotty moral dilemma at its heart. Not only will viewers be hooked, they’ll be left questioning, ‘What would I do?'”

Executive producers are Kitty Kaletsky (Rabbit Track’s co-founder), Norton, and Kate Crowe alongside StudioCanal’s Joe Naftalin. Isobel Carter oversees for Studiocanal. Ofori-Attah and JP Delaney also executive produce. Nick Pitt is series producer. ITV’s head of drama Polly Hill commissioned the series alongside Perry.

StudioCanal is distributing Playing Nice globally. Canal+ has pre-bought the series in France.

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