Luke revealed that he read Elizabeth’s book during the COVID-19 pandemic, and immediately could see the characters come to life.
Luke Evans leads ITV’s new drama The Party as Martin Gilmour(Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
TV drama fans will be thrilled to hear that they will soon be able to cwtch up on the sofa to watch ITV’s latest dark and thrilling series, The Party. Luke Evans once again teams up with the production company behind The Pembrokeshire Murders for the new drama which will air on ITV in October.
The Party is adapted from Elizabeth Day’s acclaimed novel and will see the Welsh actor portray Martin Gilmour, a journalist shaped by his long-standing friendship with the wealthy and charismatic politician Ben Fitzmaurice, played by fellow Welsh actor Tom Cullen.
It has been written and created for ITV by renowned showrunner and actress Sarah Solemani who also plays Martin’s pregnant wife, Lucy.
In an exclusive screening and Q&A session lead by ITV journalist Nina Nannar at The Soho Hotel in London on Tuesday, September 8, the cast and crew revealed how the screen adaptation came to fruition. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
Luke revealed that he read Elizabeth’s book during the COVID-19 pandemic, and immediately could see the characters come to life. He explained that his character Martin is “very complex, fascinating, deep and tragic.”
He said: “I sort of understood him, and I felt for this character. It was not an easy journey to live in Martin’s skin, but a journey that I sort of understood. I understood lots of his choices and life choices—many I didn’t understand, but there were some that I understood, and I felt like I could bring an authenticity to him. I knew he’d be someone interesting to follow on screen.”
The panel host, Nina asked: “So the genesis of all this project was obviously Elizabeth’s book, but your reading of the book was kind of instrumental, wasn’t it?”
Luke said: “Yes. I’m very proud of that fact. But, yes, I read it in lockdown. I basically read to find roles for myself and if by page 10 there’s not a really interesting, charismatic male lead, it goes to Oxfam! Page one, I was like, ‘Hold on a minute.’ Page two, ‘Fantastic.’
“Selfishly, I’m at a stage in my career where I want to develop, I want to find interesting stories and content, whether it’s a newspaper article, whether it’s a book, whatever—a story or an idea. This book, you pick it up and you don’t want to put it down. It is brilliantly written, and it’s a proper page-turner.
“I had in the back of my mind this wonderful opportunity to work with Simon Heath and Laura Cotton at World Productions. We’ve worked together twice now on two brilliant projects that were very well received, and the experience working with them was brilliant. I’m proud of the work and the roles I played in the two shows we did together, and I knew that they felt the same, and that the door was open both ways for us to work together again.
“We’d just done The Pembrokeshire Murders, which had been received extremely well. So I think we were all sort of scratching away trying to find something, and then this book landed on my lap. And I thought, ‘This is it. This is it.’
“So I immediately sent it to Simon and Laura, who read it very quickly. I mean, there was not even a question; they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’ and then the train left the station. From that point until the cameras rolled on day one was around four years. It was the first time I’ve been part right from the beginning of finding an idea to it becoming a fully fledged TV production. I was part of it as an executive producer. It was a very exciting thing to be part of the whole journey and pulling all these incredible people together to make what you see today.”
Author Elizabeth Day was thrilled to discover they wanted to make a TV adaptation of her book. She said: “I could not believe it when I got the email from my agent saying, ‘Luke Evans has read your book.’ I was like, ‘That’s enough for me!’
“Then to hear that he’d taken it to World Productions, who I already knew about because I am a super-fan of Line of Duty and I was like, ‘Well, that’s too good to be true.’ Then when they said Sarah Solemani, who I knew from writing Ridley Road brilliantly and being in Bridget Jones and many other things, I was like, ‘Well, again, it’s not going to happen.’
“So I didn’t allow myself to believe it would happen until I was sitting at the table read. A script in front of me, one of Sarah’s amazing scripts, watching Luke and Tom bring these characters who had only existed in my imagination to this breath taking new life, it was an amazing thing. But the book was published in 2017, so it’s been almost a decade in the making for me.”
Despite the book being set in the Cotswolds, the team made the decision to base the series in Wales to draw on Luke’s own experiences. He said that when he read the book he could draw on comparisons between his life and his character Martin as they often both felt like outsiders.
Luke said: “I think that’s probably why I resonated with the story in the first place when I read the book. Then we had a very long Zoom call with Simon very early on when we were talking about the comparisons I was drawing just naturally with Martin’s journey and then with my own. Coming from a small village, going to London at 17 not knowing anyone or anything, being brought up in a religious background… having blinkers on for such a long time, and then all of a sudden torn off, and then arriving in this city, and going to college, and feeling very much like an outsider, not having any knowledge other than I could sing—I couldn’t do anything else!
“But I found my way through it. I’m a confident man, and I’ve taken every opportunity and run with it and faced a challenge head-on. Martin has sort of done the same thing; he’s found his journey through it.”
World Productions emphasised their decision to set and film the series in Wales, with Simon Heath saying: “The starting point was the recognition that a large part of the show is around Martin’s roots, where he’d come from and why not draw on Luke’s real roots in South Wales? So once we started talking about that, Laura grabbed it with both hands and ran.
Laura Cotton added: “Sarah really embraced it as well. As soon as we floated the possibility, Sarah said, ‘Well, we should set it there then. We don’t have to just shoot it there; we’ll set it there.’ What came out of it as well is you really get to see the contrast of those two worlds. I think the Welsh element really helps with that.”
Simon continued: “I mean, the book is set in the Cotswolds. So, we had to do a bit of recceing to get the right houses that would work for the class aspect of the story and so on. But, you know, there’s an aristocracy that live on the Welsh borders. So it was just tapping into that as being the Fitzmaurices’ home.
“We had incredible support from Creative Wales and the Welsh Government who helped us with the financing of the show. The crews are fantastic there and it’s a lovely place to shoot. This is the second project that comes out of Laura’s office in Cardiff, so we’re really proud of that.”
You can watch The Party on ITV1 and ITV X from October.
