Starring Keeley Hawes (The Durrells, Bodyguard) as a grieving woman who has just lost her partner in a shocking and unexpected way, Finding Alice is ITV’s new, hotly anticipated drama which is both relatable, heartwarming and darkly funny. Plus, the show brings us a bit of a reunion from The Durrells as Hawes plays the main role as well as taking on the executive producer role, while Roger Goldby and Simon Nye have written and directed the drama.

What’s Finding Alice all about?
After moving into their dream home, an uber modern high-tech smarthouse, Alice’s life is thrown into chaos when her partner, Harry, suddenly dies. She must now cope with the loss of her partner of 20 years and try to keep her family together, as well as go through the legal minutiae following his death which soon reveals secrets about the man she married.

While a drama about a recently widowed woman might sound bleak, Finding Alice is anything but. Full of life, colour and dark humour, this new drama is sure to surprise you. Take a look at the trailer below for a peek at what to expect:

As well as Keeley Hawes, Finding Alice has an outstanding cast of big names including Joanna Lumley and Nigel Havers, as well the screen debut of Isabella Pappas.

We sat in on an ITV press conference with the cast and creators to hear more about the exciting new show and what it was like behind the scenes of Finding Alice. In the Q&A we heard from:

Keeley Hawes, who plays Alice and was executive producer of Finding Alice after starring in The Durrells.

Keeley Hawes notes that the house was “also a driving force. It had to be at the heart of the show in order for Alice to go on this journey, because if it hadn’t been Harry’s passion project we’d all be thinking, “well why doesn’t she just sell up and move out?” It had to be a piece of him that she has to hold onto at all costs. It’s a huge part of the show and we loved shooting there. The wonderful couple [who own it] with their pug were very generous and inviting and patient with us. And the design team have done such a wonderful job – it’s a little bit reminiscent of The Durrells in that the interior is all in the studio and then the exterior is at the house. They’ve done a flawless, seamless job of making that work.”

When asked if she felt a responsibility in playing a character going through grief to show those emotions, Keeley said, “Alice is a unique creation, and while I really hope some people will relate to her and find something within her reaction to her grief that they can relate to, and that may help, I can’t be responsible for people’s grief because grief is still unique to all of us. The way we all experience grief, whether it be for a parent or a child or a pet, it’s unique to all of us and all our own situations, so it’s not something I can be responsible for, but I hope people relate.”

Keeley said that for Alice, finding out these secrets was just another layer of pain for her to go through, saying, “It’s incredibly devastating, and on top of that, she has to deal with everything else – one of the most awful parts for me which I wasn’t aware of was people in this situation not only have to deal with the fallout and devastating grief but you can’t use a bank card, and in her case you’re worrying about putting food on the table on top of everything else, so the whole thing is as devastating as it can possibly be, and she goes on this journey to try to unravel this mess, and obviously along the line there are more secrets to uncover…”