Archie: the man who became Cary Grant - starts tonight on ITV

[IwantToRetire]

I am wondering if this will be worth watching.

But I dont have much faith in ITV doing a good job.

So much of what they do is quite weak in terms of the script, and relies on creating impressions.

Stars Jason Isaacs

https://www.itv.com/watch/archie:-the-man-who-became-cary-grant/7a0170/7a0170a0001

I think all episodes (4) are available on line

(But I think ITV did the series Nolly which although a bit smaltzy was okay!)

Not sure why mumsnet posts not longer show the graphic from the link.

Strange.

TBH anything with Jason Isaacs is going to be of interest to me!

I've already watched it on ITVX.
It is about Cary Grant, and it stars the lovely Jason Isaacs. Good enough for me! Genuinely, it is good, I have read a lot on CG and this is interesting it does focus on his marriage to Dyan Cannon not so much on his other marriages.

I watched it some time ago but remember thinking it was well done.

Thanks - I thought it was new!

I forgot ITV now premieres many shows on line.

I watched this ages ago and thought it was great. Laura Aikman was fantastic too.

Dyan Cannon and Jennifer were the executive producers of the series. I think they picked Laura Aikman for the role.

I think I saw it last Christmas. I enjoyed it.

If you like Cary Grant, you might like the novel « The Central Park Squirrels are sad on Monday » by Katherine Pancol which fictionalises Grant’s private life during his time in Paris. The Cary Grant story is very clever. And it’s a great novel overall! It’s the 3rd in a trilogy but can totally be read and enjoyed by itself (I did this.)

We watched it earlier in the year. I thought it was really well done, enjoyed it.

I'm finding this pretty poor. He isn't pulling off the character and the sound balance is dreadful. The accents too.

Seen it already and thought it was fantastic, but then I love Cary Grant

So do I. I think that's my problem! Isaacs is not tall enough or debonair enough.

i also dont have much faith in itvx
but am tempted by this

Just watched the first one & thought that CG doesn't come across as very likeable!

He really doesn't, and was even worse in tonight's. He's so controlling with Dyan, he's giving me awful flashbacks to an older man I was in a relationship with when I was about her age. I keep wanting to tell her to run for the hills.

We found it quite underwhelming tbh.

By way of anecdote , my mum was a flight attendant on the NY to LA flights in the 60s. She had Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant on a a flight once. Jimmy Stewart had enormous feet and was utterly charming. Cary Grant she remembers as being not very pleasant.

He definitely had an awful upbringing.

I'm thinking his dad was a bigamist.

When you watch he seems to come from a different era-well I suppose he did-but his daughter is younger than me!

This is old, watched it ages ago

That's probably because it is based on a book she wrote.

I've finally watched this and in fact was grateful for the comments about who had produced it etc., because without knowing it would seem odd that his whole life story wasn't there.

First off it was easier to watch not thinking is he like Cary Grant, but just for the story line.

I didn't know much about him, but it seems to have been an extraordinary life. And much like the programmes that look into people's past, a reminder that even if we think today people lead complicated lives, they were also doing this many years ago.

I think the section that covered his relationship with Dyan Cannon wasn't meant to show him as some sort of saint, but to show how his odd life style and basically old fashioned ideas meant that their relationship wouldn't last. And probably why his early marriages failed as he was clearly a control freak!

I think the series was as much to show that becoming a father turned him into a "better" person.

Assumping the representation of his mother was right, what a shame that they couldn't have had a better relationship, but quite a show of strength for her to have survived those years, decades, locked up in an asylum by a vindictive man. Who she chose to remember as some angel, when he was the one who stopped her getting a doctor for her other son, and not just abandonded her, but got her locked up!

No wonder Cary Grant was a bit strange.

I think which ever actor it was that played him as a young man who was "excorting" older women whilst trying to get into movies, was in fact the most convincing. (I never knew that famous line from Mae West was said to him!)

The problem with Jason Isaacs was not just that the voice wasn't quite right but some of the make up was really bad.

Not sure if in the Dyan Cannon time he was quite tanned and the make up department for the series, was a bit clumsy, or in fact in real life Cary Grant walked round wearing badly applied fake tan.

We finished watching this last night. I didn't realise it was old either.

Thought Laura Aikman was fantastic. I normally hate non Americans doing American accents (and vice versa), but thought hers was very good.

I got the impression that Cary Grant's looks were what got him noticed in Hollywood, but didn't think the actor playing him was particularly good looking.

He didn't seem to be a particularly nice person, but glad becoming a father seems to have made him change a bit. His upbringing can't have helped, although no excuse for being an arsehole. I don't know why Dyan Cannon married him when he'd already shown her his true colours.

I didn't realise it was old either.

Its not really "old" it is about ITV and others trying to get people to pay to watch on line advert free. Those who sign up get new productions sometimes a year ahead of those of us who just wait for it to be shown on ordinary ITV! Where you can record and whizz through the ads.

I'm from Bristol and most of his early life was filmed somewhere that didn't look remotely like Bristol. On top of that the accents were shocking. It's as if they went out of their way to do a comedy "sort of" West Country accent. I mean, no effort or research whatsover. I bet they wouldn't do that with a Liverpool accent for example.