Finding Alice, the new TV series with Keeley Hawes.

Finding Alice follows a woman whose husband dies suddenly. Georgia Humphreys hears from creators and stars Keeley Hawes and Joanna Lumley

G rief can be a complicated journey – as the new ITV series, Finding Alice, so brilliantly explores.

The eponymous character – Alice Dillon – is played by Londonborn Keeley Hawes, one of the UK’S most-loved and sought-after actresses (this month also sees her star in Channel 4 drama, It’s A Sin).

The 44-year-old star, who has her own production company, Buddy Club Productions, was also involved in the development of the six-part series.

She had previously worked with Roger Goldby (Finding Alice director, co-writer and executive producer) and Simon Nye (cowriter and executive producer) on ITV hit The Durrells and she says they wanted to continue the great dynamic they had together.

“It’s still a little bit unusual to have an actor so involved in the development process – and actually, having the dreaded Covid sort of thrown into the middle of it was a huge learning curve, for everyone,” continues mumof-three Hawes, who’s also known for shows such as Line Of Duty and Bodyguard.

Finding Alice is honest, blackly comic and moving, and set in this weird and wonderful smart house, which Alice’s husband, Harry (Jason Merrells), has built as his dream home.

But when the couple and their 16-year-old daughter, Charlotte (Isabella Pappas) move in, disaster strikes.

On their first night there, Alice discovers Harry dead at the bottom of the stairs – and so begins the difficult journey of coming to terms with a shocking loss.

What doesn’t help is Harry’s parents, Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham), keep popping round uninvited, Alice’s own parents, Roger (Nigel Havers) and Sarah (Joanna Lumley), only seem to add to her list of problems, and the police are asking questions about the night Harry died. Meanwhile, Alice is realising – with unexpected visitors knocking on the door – that her late husband had some big secrets.

Discussing how Finding Alice originated came to the screen, Goldby says: “I was toying with how to tell a story about what happens to us when we die. Is heaven or hell the memory/ legacy we leave behind? Then I just came around to grief.

“It seemed such a simple notion that touches everybody. And that it was the way to tell a story. To look at the person who is left behind and the effect of the death on that person and the memory and all the rest of it through grief. Something that touches us all yet still something of a taboo to discuss and confront openly.”

“It’s a naturalistic story, life with the boring bits taken out,” suggests Nye. “I do get frustrated sometimes with television, that it doesn’t hit that middle ground of human life – comedy, tragedy, the normal with the occasionally extraordinary.

“Even after a death, most of us are programmed to seek the light. When Alice falters in that, we hope showing her moments of despair will make for cathartic viewing.”

Lumley, 74, thought Finding Alice “was enthralling from the very beginning – something completely different”.

“Funny, but quite tragic without being selfpitying,” says the Absolutely Fabulous actress.

While Lumley notes Havers’ character Roger has “got a terrible soft heart, he cries at the drop of a hanky – I mean, he’s just a wet hen, frankly”, her character Sarah is “hard-hearted”.

“She’s not a cruel person and she’s not a bad person but she just can’t see any reason to have any social graces. So, she’s kind but fairly dismissive of Harry’s parents.”

How would she describe Sarah’s relationship with her daughter Alice?

“There is a certain amount of friction between mother and daughter – that’s terribly realistic. I and my mother and my sister, we just all loved each other completely. But I’ve met so many people who don’t get on with their mothers. Or indeed have daughters who they find, for some reason, they can’t really communicate with.”

While the series does explore various complex characters, it’s very much led by Hawes, who is in pretty much every scene throughout the six episodes.

That may sound difficult, but Hawes points out it’s “a lot less nerve-wracking being in lots of scenes, and that way you get to know the crew incredibly well and everyone incredibly well”.

She adds “there’s so much humour to be found within” the story, too.

Finding Alice starts on ITV on Sunday January 17.

TESTING TIME: Keeley Hawes as mother-of-one Alice Dillon in Finding Alice.

Nigel Havers as Roger and Joanna Lumley as Sarah.