READY FOR LIAR PART TWO?

Writers Jack and Harry Williams say it was Ioan Gruffudd’s Hollywood good looks that made viewers so reluctant to believe he could be the villain in Liar – something they exploited to the maximum. ‘That a handsome man can be capable of such awful things is shocking for many people,’ says Jack, 38, the older of the two brothers.

‘You want him to be the good guy,’ adds Harry, 36, ‘but just because someone seems plausible, that doesn’t mean they aren’t lying. The desire of the audience to see him proved innocent showed us we had cast the right actor.’

When they first sent the script to Ioan’s agent, they didn’t expect him to take the role as he was based in LA and was usually cast in heroic parts. It was years since he’d worked on British TV too. What they didn’t know though, was that Ioan was feeling typecast. He told them the idea of playing dangerous Andrew Earlham excited him because it would be a new challenge for him as an actor.

He proved as good as his word. Early in the shoot, the brothers decided viewers needed to see more of Earlham in order to sympathise with the character. That meant new scenes, with filming on Ioan’s days off. Far from complaining, the actor responded with extra ideas.

Liar has been so successful that this week ITV commissioned another drama from the brothers’ production company. It shares a theme too – it’s called Cheat. ‘We should probably do a trilogy, with a third serial called Scoundrel!’ jokes Harry.

And though Liar came to a thrilling conclusion last week, viewers might not have seen the last of Andrew Earlham. The writers reveal they’re planning a spin-off – ‘not exactly a prequel, but we don’t want to say more than that. We’d like to have Ioan involved, though it isn’t something that’s been formally discussed yet.’ So will Ioan be playing the villain on our screens again? You’ll have to wait and see...