Archie

Available on ITVX

ITV have been steadily upping their game with regard to their dramatic output as of late and this four-part biopic, written by Jeff Pope, supports that claim. Featuring a note-perfect lead performance by Jason Isaacs, Archie chronicles the life and times of Cary Grant, one of classic Hollywood’s most iconic actors, and his unlikely journey from a poverty-stricken upbringing in Bristol to international stardom.

Pope’s screenplay adopts a non-linear approach to Grant’s life story by dovetailing between his more humble existence as Archibald Leach (his birth name) and the debonair star he would later become. The travails of those formative years, in particular the sectioning of his mother Elsie, helps to explain the troubles that befell Grant’s marriage to Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman), which preoccupies much of the series’ narrative.

While far from groundbreaking, Archie is an effective examination of the innate duality that comes with celebrity and the havoc deep-seated childhood trauma can wreak even in adult life.