Playing Nice on ITV review: James Norton heads an excellent cast in this tense kid-swap drama
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Being a parent is tough. Endless worry, logistics, frustration, running around, sleep deprivation, finding out the child was switched at birth... okay the last one is less common, but it forms the basis of ITV’s new drama Playing Nice. The show which goes from happy families to a vicious custody battle is not exactly a relaxing watch. What it is, however is blessed with an excellent cast – even if some of them do feel slightly wasted at times.
Written by Grace Ofori-Attah, the brains behind last year’s medical drama Malpractice, this focuses on Pete Riley (James Norton) and his partner Maddie (Niamh Algar). They’re loving, if stressed, parents to three-year-old Theo, but their worlds are blown apart when they find out that he isn’t actually theirs.
As the rather bloodless man on the hospital board tells them, Theo was accidentally switched at birth with the child of another couple. And soon that other couple – Miles and Lucy – are knocking on their front door, wanting to play a role in his life.
Perhaps a little too much of a role? Well, of course. And soon, Pete and Maddie’s lives devolve into a living nightmare that involve waging custody battles for Theo and David – their own biological child – as well as some serious gaslighting and nefarious behaviour from Miles (James McArdle), who’s building a case against them while hiding behind a nice-guy facade.
