Jason Isaacs Looks Positively Dreamy In the Trailer for BritBox's Cary Grant Drama 'Archie'
Jason Isaacs and Laura Aikman in "Archie"
(Photo: BritBox)
BritBox has released the trailer for its upcoming biographical drama Archie, a four-part series that explores the life and career of Bristol-born British actor Archibald Leach, better known to the world as All-American heartthrob Cary Grant.
Grant is rightly remembered as Hollywood royalty, the star of such unforgettable film classics as An Affair to Remember, The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, and Notorious. (To name just a few!) But few are probably aware of how hard his road to stardom actually was. Growing up in extreme poverty, the young Archibald's childhood was a difficult one, marked by his father's alcoholism and adultery, the death of his oldest brother John, and the subsequent deep depression that his mother Elsie never really managed to recover from. The BritBox series aims to follow the story of the young man who first auditioned for a music hall act at the age of 14 to the heights of superstardom. (And changed his name to something American audiences would like better along the way.)
Archie will also explore Grant's unhappy private life, including his four failed marriages and retirement from the film industry in 1966 when his daughter Jennifer was born. (His fifth and final marriage --- which was reportedly a happy one -- was to Barbara Harris, a woman 47 years his junior at the time they wed.)
Four different actors will play Grant over the course of his life including Dainton Anderson (Stonehouse) as young Archie, Oaklee Pendergast (Masters of the Air) as teenage Archie, Calam Lynch (Bridgerton) as twentysomething Archie, and Jason Isaacs (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) as Cary Grant in his later years.
The series' ensemble also includes Harriet Walter (Killing Eve) as Elsie Leach, Cary’s mother, with Kara Tointon (Mr Selfridge) as young Elsie. Laura Aikman (London Kills) also co-stars as Grant's fourth wife, Dyan Cannon. Newcomer Ellie MacDowall plays a grown-up Jennifer Grant
Other co-stars include Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Les Misérables), Ian Pulston-Davies (DI Ray), Ian McNeice (Doc Martin), Jason Watkins (McDonald & Dodds), Lisa Faulkner (The Girl Before) and Niamh Cusack (The Tower). Archie will also bring several other familiar faces from Hollywood's most glamorous era to life, with Lolly Jones (Landscapers) as Mae West, Stella Stocker (The Chelsea Detective) as Audrey Hepburn and Alexandra Guelff (Treason) as Doris Day.
Archie was created and written by Jeff Pope (The Lost King). All four episodes were directed by Paul Andrew Williams (Broadchurch), who also serves as executive producer alongside Pope for Etta Pictures and Diederick Santer for BritBox International. Both Dyan Cannon and Cary Grant’s daughter, Jennifer Grant, also executive produced the series. The drama is co-produced by BritBox International, and will debut here in the U.S. as a BritBox exclusive on Thursday, December 7, just two weeks after its U.K. premiere on streamer ITVX.
