Cary Grant’s chaotic off-screen life is highlighted in “Archie”; Watch the sneak peek (video)

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jeff Pope (Philomena) says of Hollywood icon Cary Grant, the centrepiece of BritBox’s four-part bio-drama Archie: “You can’t create a character like Cary Grant.” The rise of this dapper actor from a poor English boy (born Archibald Leach in 1904) to film success in productions such as North by Northwest, His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story is quite dramatic.

Pope described it as “some story that Dickens might have made up” and added that Grant’s shocking realization, as a rising star in the 1930s, that the mother he believed in was She died when he was a young man, she was living in a mental institution.

Cary Grant’s chaotic off-screen life is highlighted in “Archie”

The show, which stars Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant’s dimpled chin-wearing Dion Cannon’s son, switches between three time periods: the 1960s, when Grant married the younger Dion Cannon and raised their only child, Jennifer; Gave up acting to raise children; In the 1980s, when he went on tour with his audience question-and-answer show, A Conversation with Cary Grant; And his early years. (As the exclusive video above reveals, he was also entertained by the role of James Bond.)

Four actors have played the role, with Isaac playing Grant from middle age to old age. Emmy nominee Harriet Walter (Succession, Ted Lasso) plays Grant’s mother Elsie in her later years and is one of the supporting cast. Pope says, “I was able to learn about Carrie’s upbringing from Dylan because Carrie trusted him and she got to know Elsie.”

The actress caught the attention of Archie’s writers and executive producers, who had read Jennifer’s memoir of life with her father, Good Stuff, during the trip. Canon’s The Dear Carry book served as additional inspiration for the series.

From his early days as a performer, when the teenage Archie started out as an acrobat in vaudeville, to long after Cary Grant became a global celebrity, Archie reflects on the impact Grant’s traumatic upbringing had on him. Worked to demonstrate.

The show featured many well-known figures from the Golden Age of Hollywood, including Randolph Scott, with whom Grant reportedly had a close relationship and co-starred with, in addition to Mae West, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, and Audrey Hepburn. Use to live. In reality, Pope claims that the answer to Canon’s question about Grant’s sexual orientation took the longest to write.

According to the Pope, “We certainly didn’t want to say no, nor did we want to say certainly yes.” In response, Grant mistakenly says, “I’ve loved a lot of people.” Married some of them.

He married five times, experimented with LSD, and was known as a control freak. Pope claims that “she needed to control everything in her life,” even the way she parted her hair. He wanted all his relationships with people to be as controlled and refined as his attire.

This partly explains why Grant pursued the 33-year-old Cannon, who wanted a family and marriage with the reticent star. Pope says, “Dion was an incredibly beautiful woman, but I believe the thing that attracted him to her was her insatiable curiosity – she was almost like a sponge.” “When he suggested she read it she’d say yes and she’d devour it.”

Pope says he intended to present audiences with an unbiased portrayal of the legend, even though Canon and Jennifer Grant are credited as executive producers. He adds, “This is not a piece that tries to highlight the more difficult parts of his life.”

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