BritBox's 'Archie' Tries to Find the Man Behind the Myth of Cary Grant

Most Americans are familiar with actor Cary Grant. Star of such iconic films as North by Northwest, The Philadelphia Story, and An Affair to Remember, Grant is synonymous with the entire concept of Golden Age Hollywood; a wildly popular performer who helped define what we now consider a movie star to be. What many people may not know is that Grant, all-American heartthrob, isn’t American at all. He’s British, hails from Bristol, and his real name is Archibald Leach.

BritBox’s new four-part drama Archie attempts to delve even further into the unknown aspects of the man behind the legendary performer, a notoriously private person who came from poverty, struggled with anxiety, addiction and had a string of disastrous marriages that may or may not have crumpled because of his volatile temper and possessive nature. In doing so, the series heavily leans into the idea that Cary Grant was only ever another role that Archibald Leach was asked to play, both for the public and for himself, for the sake of his career and his own sanity.

“He is a character,” Grant tells a rapt audience during the series’ first episode. “I made him up. I made up the perfect man in order to survive.”