‘I drove a digger – I’m ridiculously proud!’
How did Finding Alice come about?
KEELEY, 44: When The Durrells came to an end, lots of conversations were had about other ideas we could develop together. Finding
Alice is co-produced by my company Buddy Club and
I’m an executive producer alongside Roger and Simon [Goldby and Nye – who created the Corfu-set ITV drama].
I love being involved in all aspects of production – everything from casting to building a great crew…
Tell us about the drama…
It explores grief and shock, and what happens when someone’s life is turned upside down in the space of 30 seconds. Alice’s future isn’t as she thought it was going to be, and it’s about that unravelling – which I think is more common than you’d think.
Alice’s husband dies…?
She discovers Harry (played by Jason Merrells) dead at the bottom of the stairs. There’s a lot of black humour in death…
Harry has done this crazy thing and built this ‘smart house’ for her as a labour of love. Unfortunately, it’s the house that kills him – because he doesn’t like bannisters…
You’ve got Joanna Lumley and Nigel Havers as your on-screen parents…?
Was production halted because of coronavirus?
We’d almost finished in the studio when we had to stop for lockdown – we were just about to head out on location. When we were able to return to filming there was a very strange atmosphere by then – no one was on the roads, people were scared. We stayed safe and we were all in a bubble.
How did you find it all?
It was a frightening time. When we had to stop we were saying, ‘See you in a few weeks.’ Little did we know we would all be older when we came back…
Alice drives a digger in one scene – is that really you?
It really is me! I am ridiculously proud of myself. If something isn’t too dangerous and it’s insurable then I’ll give it a go, and I loved it.
She also wields a power hose…
That was great fun, and luckily it was a really sunny day. We did it lots of times and I was having the time of my life!