BritBox's 'Archie' Lands a December Release Date

In the current era of prestige TV, actors who are “secretly British” are everywhere. The forthcoming Masters of the Air, for example, is about WWII’s American Air Force’s Bloody Hundredth, but two-thirds of its stars hail from their British allies. Fans are so used to Undercover Brits being in their shows, playing everything from Mormons to science fiction heroes, it’s just expected for at least one or two to suddenly start speaking with a British accent when out of character. However, when American actors of the Golden Age suddenly turn out to have been British all along, that’s when eyebrows start popping up. Such is the case with All-American heartthrob Cary Grant, who was really Bristol-born boy Archibald Leach.

The new ITVX-BritBox biographic miniseries Archie promises to dig into the hidden life of Leach, born into extreme poverty in Edwardian England, and charts his unlikely path to stardom and Hollywood royalty in the Swinging 60s Los Angeles. However, actor Jason Isaacs, who plays the actor in his golden years, warns viewers not to expect this to be all about Grant’s greatest hits. In the latest edition of Radio Times Magazine, Isaacs confessed that when he first was told about the project, he wasn’t sure he wanted to do it. “I thought I ought to run a million miles in the other direction.” After all, “Cary Grant was dazzlingly suave, a lady-killer and beloved by the entire world.”

“Then I read the script and realized this was about Archie Leach, not Cary Grant. It’s about a damaged man who created an avatar so people couldn’t see how damaged he was. He got the whole world to love him, but he was riddled with anxiety and addiction. He destroyed his first four marriages — and almost every other relationship, too. He only found peace when he gave it all up and realized it wasn’t the adulation of the world he wanted. He needed to love himself.”