One of the first, big (or at least high-profile) crime dramas of 2025 this ITV four-parter (shown in two-episode bursts).
It’s a juicy-sounding domestic noir set in brilliant, beautiful Cornwall and with a central premise that is so noir and so domestic, this subgenre was made for it. Like in any domestic noir, there needs to be characters who inhabit if not a so-called perfect lifestyle but certainly a settled one. Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) are two such characters – Pete, a stay-at-home dad to toddler Theo, and Maddie, a restaurant owner and chef. In an opening montage set to Kevin Morby’s Beautiful Strangers, we see them at work, on the beach and cooking in the kitchen together. They have a close bond with their son.
But – whoosh, no messing here – the song is over and they’re called into the local hospital, where they are told that Theo is, in all likelihood, not their genetic son: two premature babies were born on the same day at the hospital, and it’s pretty certain that they picked up the wrong baby.
Can you imagine being told that? Pete responds emotionally and refuses to admit that this is happening, while Maddie is more pragmatic – she tries to remember what happened in the hospital, even encouraging contact with the other couple. In what seems like a flash (a bit too quickly, it feels), the other young boy’s parents – Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay) – are on the scene, wanting to be a part of their lives and, ultimately, part of Theo’s. It’s a highly emotive high concept and it’s handled well, everyone trying to come to terms with this nightmarish situation.
But… but, but, but. As Miles rather heavy-handedly tries to buddy up with Pete (go surfing together, the offer of a shared nanny, inviting him and Maddie on holidays), there is some heavy signposting that tells us things are going soon going to go badly wrong – there are sideways looks to the camera where Miles’ perma-smile drops, the odd comment to his wife that suggests coercive control and general overbearingness.
And, as the episode develops, things start to happen that threaten their relationship and, consequently, the hold they have on Theo. Pete and Maddie are reported to social services after a cannabis incident, Theo fights with another boy at nursery, and Maddie’s own post-partum mental health is mentioned in passing by Pete to Miles, which you just know the latter will use at some point. And, there’s the slight inference that both Pete and Maddie have close friends from the opposite sex, whose relationships might be used against them.
Aaaaand, it’s also worth mentioning – and this is very thriller-by-numbers here – bits of flashback information (specifically what happened in the hospital) are drip-fed to us.
So we know something went badly wrong at the hospital, we know that Miles and Lucy are wrong ‘uns (mostly Miles), but we don’t quite know why yet.
Paul Hirons
Playing Nice is broadcast in the UK by ITV1 and ITVX
