James Norton, Jessica Brown Findlay to Star in 'Playing Nice'

J.P. Delaney’s The Girl Before may have gone mainly unnoticed on HBO Max due to a criminal lack of marketing, but it was a decent-sized hit for BBC One when it was released in December 2021. It was perfect for streaming television, a four-episode/four-lead domestic thriller series based on the novel of the same name by the same writer; it was perfect for streaming television. To the surprise of no one, there’s more where that came from, with a new adaptation from another Delaney novel now underway for ITV and Studio Canal, based on the 2020 novel Playing Nice.

Delaney (real name Tony Strong) has written under a multitude of pseudonyms, but in this case, he’s not attached to the project, under his name or any other. Instead, this project came together under actor James Norton (Happy Valley), who executive produces through his production company Rabbit Track Pictures, and co-founder and Managing Director Kitty Kaletsky (Rogue Agent). The two said in a statement, “Playing Nice was the first book we optioned after launching Rabbit Track, and we feel immensely proud of the project it has become.”

Norton stars in the series, which is described as a story in which two couples discover that their children were switched at birth. Like The Girl Before, this is a four-episode drama, featuring four main leads, where the plot rests firmly in the realm of domestic thriller.