James Norton on Playing Nice: 'When I see injustice, I get really p****d off'

The 39-year-old actor’s latest role is his most challenging yet – if not in terms of range, then certainly in terms of responsibility. He’s starting 2025 with a bang by starring in Playing Nice, a psychological thriller based on the 2020 novel by JP Delaney. The fact it’s the first TV drama from Rabbit Track Pictures, the production company he co-founded with Kitty Kaletsky in 2019, makes it a project more personal and onerous than most. "It was the first book we optioned," says Norton. "We saw the potential for a TV show, and knew it was the kind of thing we wanted to make – great characters, an incredible hook, a real thriller."

Insofar as Rabbit Track has a creative mandate, "good storytelling" is it. "When you develop something, you have to be with it for years. So, if you don’t love it initially, you’re dooming yourself. At the beginning, we’d only gravitate towards what we loved. Now, we’ve got 12 projects in development, and there’s a sense of a through line. It’s quality drama, the characters have to be nuanced and identifiable. We don’t like heroes and villains, or broad brushstrokes. Putting these rich characters into mad circumstances and stretching them, threatening them and thwarting them is what we love."

That’s a spot-on description of Playing Nice, whose big questions are tailor-made for the watercooler (or group chat, if you work from home). How would you feel if your baby was accidentally swapped at birth, and you only found out three years later? Would you want your biological child back, or would you be too bonded to the child you thought was yours?

That is the dilemma facing journalist Pete (Norton) and his restaurateur wife Maddie (Niamh Algar), whose lives become intertwined with those of entrepreneur Miles (James McArdle) and his artist wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay), as they navigate a psychological minefield that is every parent’s nightmare.

Filming took place in Cornwall over three months, with the four cast members quickly bonding. "We became a really insular unit, with weekends spent surfing. It really was fun – sometimes too much fun.”"

One of the perks of having your own production company is choosing your own cast. For Norton, that meant finally getting to work with James McArdle, a former Rada classmate. "That was the best phone call," he smiles, recalling the moment when he asked McArdle if he’d be interested. "James is special. He’s so good."

He only knew the others loosely, but says, "Jessie and Niamh were top of the list of people I admired, so to be able to bring everyone together was the best feeling. They’re all great actors who were firing on all cylinders. They came and they cared. A trust was formed early on that meant the scenes just fizzed. We had a great director in Kate Hewitt and a great script by Grace Ofori-Attah. When that alchemy hits, it’s the best job in the world." Norton is equally full of praise for the child actors who played Theo and David, as well as the casting director, Fiona Weir. "One of the best in the business."

You don’t have to be Inspector Clouseau to identify a theme running through Norton’s most recent work, Playing Nice having been preceded by Joy, the true story of the world’s first IVF baby, in which he plays scientist Robert Edwards. He’ll also be adapting Magpie, Elizabeth Day’s novel about fertility, for TV.

"Kitty has coined my casting bracket right now as Sad Dad. It’s quite true, although Magpie isn’t something I’ll necessarily be in. The majority of the projects we’re developing are not for me to be in. But, yeah, children – I’m in that pocket of life where even though I don’t have kids of my own, kids are everywhere. And if you’re looking for big drama, kids are the highest of all stakes."

One of the drama’s themes is post-natal depression, a subject Norton was determined to treat with care. "It’s important to tell those stories more, because they haven’t had the air time or compassion that they require. Women’s health hasn’t, generally. The number of people who have come forward after watching Joy and said it’s great to see a movie talk about endometriosis – it’s so prevalent, yet hugely underrepresented. Visibility is important.

"It’s a really horrible truth that male health is way more developed than women’s. It felt like a good opportunity to tell a story about someone who has gone through post-natal depression, and address some of the taboos around it."

Norton was set to play Miles, the villain of the piece, but was more drawn to Pete. "You might think Pete’s less of a challenge, but when you play somebody who’s close to you [in character], it’s a different type of challenge. There’s more introspection. I spent a lot of time thinking about him. Pete is a good guy who sees the best in people. He’s optimistic. What interested me was the question of what it is to be a modern man, post-Me Too, with the attempt to rebalance the patriarchal crimes of the past. With a lot of men there’s a misconception that what we should be doing is making space, stepping back and almost becoming passive."

So what should men be doing instead? "Pete’s a good man, but he’s an avoidant. He makes a very admirable choice, to give up his career to look after Theo and become the primary caregiver – which friends of mine have done, and I’m full of respect for. It’s a big choice. It still comes with some people’s taboos attached to it.

"Pete makes that choice, then makes the mistake of thinking that a modern man should just make space for their wife. He eventually realises that a man also has to step up. You have to be proactive and, sometimes, confrontational. When there are men like Miles out there, you can’t play nice all the time. You have to be a bit of a prick, and play nasty. A modern man is a mixture, and so to have those conversations around modern masculinity was interesting."

For Norton, this is what makes a good psychological thriller: the ability to prompt heated debates. "If you have a group of people on different sides of an argument around a character, you know you’re doing something right, because you’re getting to that nuanced space where you’re at the nub of what it is to be human."

What would he do in Pete’s shoes? "I would not be a Pete! I’m a relatively calm individual, but when I see injustice, I get really f***ing p****d off. And the older I get, the less I can cope with it. I will say stuff, and I will confront. I grew up in a family of people who confronted. We’re not passive-aggressive. I’m not confrontational by nature, but I’m not averse to saying what I think – probably sometimes to a fault."

After a big family Christmas in Oxfordshire ("country walks, big meals, classic, traditional"), Norton is ending the year spending a week in a Buddhist retreat in France. "It’s confronting in a good way," he smiles. "It’s semi-silent, but your phone is off for the whole week, which is great. And New Year is very special – 500 retreatants in a big community, with lots of meditation and walking. It’s very moving. I’d recommend it for the setting up of the year."

It certainly beats waking up with a hangover. With a busy 2025 ahead – he has roles in Heart of Darkness, King and Conqueror and House of Guinness, not to mention his production work – Norton will need that clear head.

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Playing Nice will air on ITV1 on Sunday 5th January at 9pm, with subsequent episodes airing on Monday and Sunday in the same timeslot.

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