The new four-part drama explores the life of Hollywood actor, Cary Grant.
Although you may not think it at first glance of the show’s title, ITVX’s new drama, Archie, is centred on the life of Cary Grant.
One of Hollywood’s best known leading actors, Grant became known for his roles in screwball comedy films like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, as well as having a close working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock for films like Notorious, North by Northwest and Suspicion.
The actor was actually born as Archibald Alexander Leach, hence the nickname and title of the series, Archie. He was told to change his name to something “more all-American like” and thus, Cary Grant was born.
The new series explores Grant (played by Jason Isaacs) as the actor that many knew but more importantly, offering a look into his private life, his tragically sad childhood and his eventual marriage to Dyan Cannon (played by Laura Aikman).
But what is fact and what is fiction in the new series? Read on to find out more about the true story behind ITVX’s Archie.
Is Archie based on a true story?
Yes, the new ITVX series is based on the life of Cary Grant but of course, with the iconic actor having died in 1986, the team behind the series utilised the first-hand accounts of his ex-wife Dyan Cannon and their daughter, Jennifer Grant.
Written by award-winning screenwriter Jeff Pope (Philomena, The Reckoning), the new four-part series explores the side of Grant that nobody got to see as the private actor that he was.
Pope worked with Dyan Cannon, who published her memoir Dear Cary in 2011 and serves as executive producer on Archie with her daughter Jennifer Grant.
Speaking about the decision to take Grant’s life and put it on the small screen, Cannon told RadioTimes.com and other press at a screening of Archie: “Jeff came to me in I think it was 2008, he talked about making a movie and then, as the time went by, it turned out to be this wonderful miniseries.”
Speaking about the story at the heart of the new series, Pope said: “The story I wanted to tell was what happened to him in his childhood still had a profound impact on him as an adult. That’s really the story that it’s telling, such an awful, traumatic childhood.
“I could not believe it when I really started to dig into his life story. This thing of, as an adult, a successful adult, a man whose lived in another country for a long time then your dad rings up and goes ‘You know your mum you thought was dead? She’s still alive and has been for the last 20/25 years’. He was my age roughly when he became a father for the first time so you can see how, I think, it tells the story of someone who was incredibly phobic about that kind of commitment.”
The four episodes in the series take us on a quick tour of Grant’s life from as a small child growing up in poverty in Bristol through to being told by his father that his mother died. Actually, his father had sent her to a mental health institution against her will after she lived with clinical depression following the death of her other son, John, from tuberculous meningitis.
Grant only found out the truth about his mother when he was 31 after his father finally confessed to the lie shortly before his death. In his later years, Grant kept up a relationship with his mother and eventually moved her out of the institution.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press about whether he was aware of the lie that ultimately coloured Grant’s life, leading Archie actor Jason Isaacs revealed that he “knew nothing about that, I knew nothing about the history of it”.
He said: “People are many things to many people. Dyan and Jennifer had very different experiences of the same man obviously. I tried my best through a billion different ways to get inside the head of who I think he was – I don’t know if he ever fully unburdened himself to anyone except possibly Dr Hartman when he was on acid.
“But I think I understand something of the many people that he was through Jeff’s writing, through Dyan and Jennifer being so generous with their time and trust, and through a bunch of stuff I found that some other people had never had access to. I didn’t know about him but I filled in a picture through my own research.”
In his teenage years as Archie, he joined the Bob Pender Troupe, a band of acrobats, stilt walkers, clowns and comedians. Despite not having any stage experience at the time, Pender allowed a teenage Archie to be part of the group which toured around the UK and eventually went to America.
It was there that Archie decided he wanted to pursue a life in show business, also believing that his father didn’t care enough about him and wouldn’t mind. He managed to gain notoriety for his vaudeville performances in the ’20s and moved to Hollywood in the ’30s.
Before long, Archie met George Burns who helped him find his feet in Hollywood and it was Archie’s role in Nikki that caught the attention of press, leading to a screen test and then the signing of a major contract with Paramount Pictures in 1931 aged 27. The contract was to last for five years and part of it was the demand for Archie to change his name to something “more all-American like Gary Cooper”, leading to the adoption of the name Cary Grant.
Grant achieved international stardom throughout his career, becoming known for his good looks and untraceable accent, often adopting an American lilt for his leading roles. Some of his most notable film performances include alongside Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, opposite Sophia Loren in The Pride and the Passion and opposite Audrey Hepburn later on in his career in Charade.
In fact, Grant was originally sought after to be James Bond in Dr No but didn’t want to be part of a franchise and only wanted to do it as a one-off film, thus leading to Sean Connery being cast as the lead.
In terms of his personal life, Grant became known as a suave bachelor in Hollywood and throughout his life, was married a total of five times. His second marriage was to Barbara Hutton, one of the wealthiest women in the world at the time who inherited $50 million from her grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth. Grant refused financial settlement in their pre-nuptual agreement after claims that he was marrying Hutton for her wealth. Upon their divorce, they remained friends.
But in Archie, it’s his relationship with Dyan Cannon that is explored, not least because she serves as one of the series’ executive producers. Despite being previously averse to having children, Grant and Cannon had a daughter, Jennifer Grant, in 1966 who is Grant’s only child and the reason that he retired from film acting that same year. Grant and Cannon divorced in 1968.
In the last years of his life, Grant devoted his life to caring for Jennifer and also toured the US in his one man show, In Conversation with Cary Grant, where he would answer audience questions and reflect on his career. Grant died aged 82 of a stroke in 1986.
Playing the role of Grant in Archie is Isaacs, who was open about the complex role of the Hollywood legend. He said of the new series: “I didn’t think it was a story of a Hollywood legend at all, I thought it was a story of a man crippled by the baggage of his past who was able to put on a face to the world – he was able to be and play Cary Grant but not off screen.
“I mean, the first thing I did was look for interviews and good luck finding an interview with him anywhere, he didn’t want to be seen, he didn’t want to be known. I would’ve run a million miles from playing Cary Grant and if you want to see Cary Grant, you can watch his films, they’re amazing. This is what happens when he steps off set.”
Isaacs continued: “I don’t think he ever truly fully knew or understood himself, what he was doing. Everything is so complicated. He was amazingly able at being this charming, suave person but it was also his mission in life to be loved by everybody always. He might have been attracted to various different people but he tried to make the world safer for him and make it exactly how he wanted.
“He was an immensely complex man, I don’t know that he knew what he was looking for in his marriages. If he did, maybe they would’ve lasted longer.”
Archie premieres on ITVX on Thursday 23rd November 2023. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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