Playing Nice series writer breaks down differences from book

While Playing Nice is based on the original book, though, it does take a bit of a new direction.

Breaking down some of those differences between Delaney's work and the new ITV drama, series writer Grace Ofori-Attah said at a screening for the show: "The book’s premise, I think, is just so fantastic, we really stuck closely to that: 'What would you do if you found yourself in that situation?'

"Episode 1 does stick quite closely to the book, but from episode 2 onwards, we added quite a lot of new elements.

"The mediation scene, which was one of my favourite scenes to write, wasn’t in the book at all – they mention the mediation and the fact they have it, but we discussed it and we thought it would be really, really great to see what that’s like and have those two couples sitting with each other having to discuss an issue and try and behave and play nice with the mediator."

Ofori-Attah went on: "And also, things like the charity gala at the end, it’s not in the book – that was another idea that I thought would be quite nice, to put these couples together and see if they can behave and play nice for their children.

"We had a lot of fun adding various elements but sticking to the initial premise and seeing how the audience reacts to them."

In a press pack for the series, Norton – who also serves as executive producer – said that the new show "isn’t defined by the book", and "differs slightly" even though their version is "close to the novel".

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Norton said: "In our version, Pete and Maddie met relatively recently before the story starts and had their son, Theo, quite quickly after meeting. There’s a question mark over whether Theo was intended or not, but they have very loving relationship.

"Maddie is career-minded, focused, ambitious and runs a restaurant, whereas Pete's happiest in a slightly slower lane looking after Theo.

"He’s very happy to be a stay-at-home dad, and both Pete and Maddie navigate the strange societal implications that come with that, supporting each other and their choices."

Algar, who stars as Maddie in the series, also said: "I wasn't familiar with the book before, but as our show is slightly removed from the book, I didn’t read too much into it. I tried not to, because then I would worry that I would draw a comparison, and our production is doing taking their own take on this. Your script is the Bible."

Speaking of bringing the book character to life for the screen, Algar added: "You want the freedom to be able to bring your own take on this character and bring something that potentially isn't there on the page. It lets us dig deeper and find some new nuance - there was plenty to work with."

Similarly, Brown Findlay said of bringing Lucy to life in Playing Nice: "With this, the script had developed into quite a different piece with quite different characters. This is almost like a cousin to the book. It's taking the premise of that and restaging it into a space that feels viscerally now, and setting it into the coastline is genius.

"There's a rawness to the way this show looks and where we are filming that really escalated the isolation, for me playing as Lucy. She feels very isolated, and the Cornish coastline really helps accentuate that."

Playing Nice continues on ITV1 on Monday 6th January at 9pm and is available to stream on ITVX.

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