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Playing Nice opens with a shock for Pete Riley (James Norton – Bob Marley: One Love), heading into the water, thinking his son, Theo, has fallen in…
Head back three months earlier, and similar to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father Like Son, the hospital tells them that he and wife Maddie (Niamh Algar – Malpractice) left with the wrong biological son.
Cue a discussion of apologies and DNA tests, as the situation came to light when the other couple involved, Miles (James McArdle – Sexy Beast) and Lucy Lambert (Jessica Brown Findlay – The Flatshare), had to bring their son into the same medical establishment, but I wondered, what if one couple wants to keep the child, and the other wants to give them up?
Either way, the Lamberts seem surprisingly accepting of the situation.
At this point, I’ve only seen the opener for this four-parter, but as we see both couples deal with the bizarre situation, no-one seems to have done the obvious, and test their own DNA against the other couple’s child, or are we just to assume that was done offscreen?
So far, Playing Nice is okay, but far from must-see. Despite being a bit slow, I’ll still continue with it.
Playing Nice begins tonight on ITV at 9pm, but is already available to stream in full on ITVX now.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
However, you can buy the paperback book here.
Director: Kate Hewitt
Producer: Nick Pitt
Screenwriter: Grace Ofori-Attah
Novel: JP Delaney
Cast:
Pete Riley: James Norton
Maddie Riley: Niamh Algar
Lucy Lambert: Jessica Brown Findlay
Miles Lambert: James McArdle
A&E Doctor: Cara Mahoney
Kiera: Posy Sterling
Suzy: Lucy Phelps
Martin Swale: Philippe Spall
DS Jay Chopra: Akbar Kurtha
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.