Q: How did Finding Alice originate and come to the screen?“Roger Goldby, Simon Nye and I had such a brilliant experience over the years on The
Durrells, and formed a great working relationship and friendship. It felt like an organic
progression to work together again.

“When The Durrells came to an end we started thinking about ideas we could develop
together. Lots of conversations were had and ideas thrown around. We came to the
idea of the story that became Finding Alice. We were all interested in the subject of
grief. It was something we wanted to explore further.

“Finding Alice is co-produced by my company Buddy Club and I’m an executive producer
alongside Roger and Simon. I love being involved in all aspects of production,
everything from casting to building a great crew.

“It’s a really collaborative process and there are lots of people involved. Putting a team
together is one of the parts I really love. You get involved with everything, really.

Production shutting down due to Covid 19 was a real learning curve. For everyone in
fact!”

Q: What does Finding Alice explore?

“Finding Alice explores grief and shock and what happens when someone’s life is turned
upside down in the space of 30 seconds. Alice’s future as she sees it and her past, as it
turns out, isn’t as she thought it was going to be or as she has known it. It’s about that
unravelling. I think it’s more common than you’d think.

“That allows us to explore lots of things. There is a lot of black humour in death. Both
Simon and Roger have quite a dark sense of humour. That is something we all share. It
was good to mine that. You have to find the light during those moments in your life. Crying and laughing are so close together in terms of emotions. It’s inevitable that one
spills over into the other.”

Q: How would you describe Alice’s relationship with partner Harry?

“Alice and Harry were soulmates and friends. We see them together in flashbacks. They
are like teenagers together. Their relationship is full of love, fun and humour. Alice is not
immature but she is quite outspoken and can put her foot in it. Harry loves that about
her and he is not dissimilar. They are very young at heart as a couple. Their daughter
Charlotte is actually more grown up than either of them.

“Alice and Harry make a great pair and Harry has done this crazy thing and built this
new ‘smart house’ for her as a labour of love. Unfortunately, it’s the house that kills
him. Because he didn’t like bannisters. The sensible thing would have been to put
bannisters in. But he is a bit reckless in life and doesn’t always do the sensible thing.”

Q: How does Alice deal with her grief?

“Alice is in shock. We did lots of research and quite often a woman will put her face
back on and do her hair after losing somebody. Presenting herself to the world as
though everything is quite normal. That is what Alice does for a while. Until the
unravelling gets too much.

“It’s absolutely fascinating to look at the seven stages of grief. We all know someone
who has passed away. We’ve all been there. One of the only things that unites us all is
death and loss. You look at the seven stages of grief and think you won’t feel like that.
But of course its totally natural. You feel cheated and angry and furious with the person.
You feel desperate and guilty that you maybe feel okay one day and a bit better. It’s
absolutely tortuous. But everybody goes through it. Or we all know someone who has.”

Q: What about Alice’s daughter Charlotte?

“Charlotte finds herself having to deal with her mother rather than dealing with her
own grief. Alice is so wrapped up in her own grief and shock that she initially can’t see
beyond that. She is a great mother and loves her daughter with all her heart. Charlotte
is an only child and a living reminder of the man Alice loved so much and has lost.
Charlotte finds herself dealing with both her own grief and her mother’s grief and starts
to bottle things up. Because she doesn’t really have an outlet.

“Isabella Pappas, who plays Charlotte and I did a chemistry read together and Isabella
was our perfect Charlotte. She gives a brilliant performance. Restrained and beautifully
played. She is so good at portraying the emotions and never over playing it. it is
beautiful and subtle and totally believable. We were very lucky with Charlotte and all
our terrific cast.”

Q: Did working with Isabella bring back memories of your own first jobs in TV?

“I did so much when I was a child and younger than Isabella. She also went to the Sylvia
Young Theatre School in London so we had that in common. Lots of staff I knew are still
there. So it was really lovely to talk about that. Dominique Moore, who plays Yasmina,
also went to Sylvia Young so we all felt very at home talking about that.”

Q: Bereaved Alice faces problems with a bank and missing computer passwords. Do
you think that is a common experience?

“All of that is factual. It’s astonishing in this day and age that you can’t withdraw money
from your partner’s account. On top of everything else it just seems deeply unfair that
having lost someone you then can’t live your life with any sense of reality. You don’t
even have that to rely on.

“As well as dealing with your grief, shock and awful sadness you are then expected to be
able to deal with that side of things as well. It’s very common that one person in a
relationship pays all of the bills and has all of the passwords. And if they die then the
other person is stranded.”

Q: Can you tell us about ‘the house that Harry built’?

“The house we used for the exterior shots of the smart house that Harry built was in
Farnham in Surrey. It was amazing. And very similar on the inside to what you see on
screen as we based our interior studio sets on the actual interior of that house. Our
design department have done an extraordinary job creating it.

“The owners of the house were very welcoming and patient with us. It was an amazing
place to shoot.”

“As for it being a ‘smart house’ in the story, it all looked very good on paper. But nothing
could control the curtains. Not even Alice’s iPad. Our production designer Debbie
Burton did such a fantastic job. Along with our wonderful DoP Ashley Rowe. The look of
Finding Alice is crucial and it works so well. To work, it needs to be believable and it
needs to look great. And it does.

“Lots of the crew had already worked together on The Durrells and various other
productions so we all knew each other really well. Which also means you are
immediately relaxed. It just makes for a lovely working environment.”

Q: What was it like to have Joanna Lumley and Nigel Havers as your screen parents?

“Joanna Lumley was top of our list. And also incredibly busy, so we were thrilled when
she agreed to be part of the show. She does these amazing documentaries and is
constantly busy. But she agreed to come and be my screen mum Sarah. A bit of a dream
come true. It was a joy to work with Joanna.

“And then to have Nigel Havers as my dad Roger was brilliant. Joanna and Nigel have
worked together over the years so were very happy together. I think we make a very
good family.

“Alice is very close to her dad while her mother is the more complicated character. Her
dad is quite straightforward, very well meaning and lovely. Satisfied with his world.
While her mother is dissatisfied with her lot. They have their own secrets like everybody
else in the show. We find out about those as the story unfolds.

“We were very lucky with all of the cast. Sometimes it just happens. Everybody gets
along and there is a lovely chemistry. It really was the case with Finding Alice. Sharon
Rooney’s character Nicola is involved in both sides of Alice’s life, the family and the
bereavement group. It’s such a wonderful relationship that they start to build.”

Q: Did you do any of your own research into bereavement groups?

“We did a lot of research into bereavement groups. That is one of my favourite parts of
the show. All of those characters coming together are totally believable. I loved working
with that group of actors and the writing for those scenes was very well judged.

“We have a bereavement group night out later in the series. That was a real highlight.
We all went bowling. I’m not the world’s greatest bowler but I had more fun on that day
than I ever had actually going bowling for fun.

“Rhashan Stone is brilliant as pathology technologist Nathan. I’d worked with him
before on Mutual Friends. When I read the first draft of Finding Alice I had him in my
head for the role. Because you do. You slot people in as dream bits of casting. He is a
wonderful actor.

“There is a brutal honesty about Alice in terms of most things. As there is with Nathan.
He is a real rock for her as a friend and also being very good at his job.”

Q: What stage had you reached when filming had to stop ahead of the first lockdown?

“We had almost finished filming in the studio when we had to stop for lockdown. We
were just about to head out on location. Our main objective towards the end of that
period was to finish in the studio so when we were able to return to filming we could
get straight out on the road. And we achieved that on the Friday we finished.

“There was a very strange atmosphere by then. No-one was on the roads. People were
scared. And long before people were talking about them we were all in a bubble. We
stayed safe. No-one was going out. We were just coming to work and going back home
again.

“It was just a frightening time. Then at that moment when we had to stop we were all
saying, ‘Well, see you in a few weeks.’ Little did we know that we would all be older
when we came back! It just went on and on. I learned so much about Covid regulations
being an exec on the show and having those conversations about how we could get
back on track and resume filming. How things would operate then. We all became
protocol experts on this awful virus.”

Q: When and how did filming resume?

“We resumed filming in the autumn. The great majority of people were tested twice a
week on our show. The proper 48-hour tests. We were put into cast bubbles. We did
have to re-write the scripts, but managed to do that without having to compromise
anything.

“At one stage Alice shares a kiss and a hug with someone. Their wife had to come in and
double for me so we could get some footage of another character kissing Alice.
Because, obviously, I couldn’t be kissing anybody. I know other productions have shot
scenes through Perspex, but we didn’t have to do that.

“It’s also amazing what you can do with camera tricks. Also keeping the older members
of our cast at a distance was a huge priority and by using green screen and bubbles
along with other things we were able to tell the story. I really do think it has worked and
looks great.

“We couldn’t introduce Covid into the story because we were so far in to filming. And
nor would we want to, really.”

Q: Alice is seen driving a digger. How was that to film?

“That is really me driving the digger! I am ridiculously proud of myself. I had a lovely
double called Nellie who came in ready to do it. But I find a challenge like that is
something I often like to do myself. If it’s not too dangerous and it’s insurable then I’ll
give it a go. It was very satisfying driving the digger. I loved it. Someone gave me a
lesson and I didn’t have to drive it especially well. Alice isn’t an expert!”

Q: Alice also wields a power hose at one stage. Did you enjoy that?

“That was great fun. And luckily for the brilliant Joe Bannister a really sunny day! We did
it lots of times. I was having the time of my life!”

Q: How do you reflect back on making Finding Alice?

“This has been unlike any other series I have filmed. I am genuinely sad to have
finished, but hugely relieved to have got it done. It was just such a pleasure to make. All
the more so because of everything we had to go through in order to get it done. People
worked so hard and so tirelessly. Everyone came back after lockdown and it felt very
much like the same show in the last five weeks of wrapping it up. We got there in the
end.

“I hope people will find Finding Alice moving and relatable, and I hope they’ll love our
family of wonderful, funny characters as much as I do.”