ITV's 'Playing Nice' Trailer Is Full of PBS Favorites

Anglophiles joke that it sometimes feels like there are only 100 or so British actors, and every British TV series just arranges them into different configurations. That's not precisely true; it's more that for decades, the projects that found their way across the pond were on PBS, which tended to bring over a particular type of mystery or class of period piece that happened to star the same segment of the BBC acting population. Streaming has opened that narrow slice somewhat wider, as has the BBC's commitment to diversity, but plenty of shows, like Playing Nice, still feel like casting said, "Round up the usual suspects."

A series similar to MaryLand or Our House, Playing Nice is a family drama with a nightmare premise. In this case, it's not a parent who decided to die while in their double life no one knew about or coming home to find one's house has been sold out from under them; it's discovering the toddler you've raised from birth isn't yours, and someone else has been raising your kid this whole time. Worse, it's the sort of situation where it's hard to pin blame: an exhausted hospital worker accidentally put the wrong tag on the wrong baby. The series tries to think through how people would realistically react in such a scenario.

The four tasked with that job are all familiar faces to the PBS crowd: James Norton (Grantchester), Niamh Algar (Mary & George), Jessica Brown Findley (Downton Abbey), and James McArdle (Sexy Beast) comprise the main roster (like MaryLand and Our House, the series has a tiny cast), and all four basically act their faces off in the trailer.

Here's the four-part series synopsis:

Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up, and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?  

Living a waking nightmare, Pete and Maddie are jettisoned into the world of the other couple; Miles and Lucy. At first it seems all four are agreed on a solution, but it soon becomes clear that hidden motives are at play. How far can each couple trust the real parents of their child – or even each other? As Pete and Maddie are stretched to breaking point, they realise they will stop at nothing to keep their family together. 

Norton and Algar star as Pete and Maddie, and McArdle and Findlay play the other couple, Miles and Lucy. Writer Grace Ofori-Attah (Malpractice) adapted the scripts from the best-selling novel of the same name by British thriller author JP Delaney. Director Kate Hewitt (One Day) helmed all episodes with Nick Pitt as series producer. Ofori-Attah, Delaney, and Norton executive produce the series with Kitty Kaletsky for Rabbit Track Pictures, Joe Naftalin & Isobel Carter for StudioCanal, and Kate Crowe.

Playing Nice will debut on ITV in January 2025. The series does not yet have an American distributor, but that's expected to change in the coming months.