Cary Grant biopic featuring Flint actor now on ITVX

Archie: the man who became Cary Grant is a four-part series which examines the formative years of the iconic actor, born Archibald Leach, who would move from Bristol as a young man to forge a hugely successful career in Hollywood.

Jason Isaacs plays the titular character alongside Flint actor Ian Puleston-Davies as Bob Pender, a significant figure in the development of Grant as performer. 

Pender is the creator of a performance group which travelled extensively throughout the UK and the US and of whom Leach is the most famous alumnus. The Pender Troupe invited a sixteen-year-old Leach to tour the US, where he would settle - in New York - and begin his early career in vaudeville.

Despite his later reputation as a suave and confident leading man, Archie digs into Cary Grant's turbulent formative years which feature a dark secret which was kept from him by his father.

The series, which features filming locations from across the North West, was in part filmed on Albion Street, Chester in September.

Written by Jeff Pope, critically acclaimed for The Widower, Mrs Biggs, A Confession and the Oscar-nominated films Philomena and Stan & Ollie, the new show's scripted has been given the blessing of Cary Grant's daughter, Jennifer, and ex-wife Dyan Cannon

The screenwriter said of Archie: "As with many of my projects, I started at the end and worked backwards. I discovered that, at the height of his fame, Cary Grant retired to look after his young daughter. Intrigued, I started to dig into why he had become a single father. What had happened?

"My journey led me to Bristol, and a young boy called Archie Leach. Cary Grant became one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth century, beloved by presidents and paupers. The key to everything, lay in his childhood."

The full series is now available to watch via ITVX at: https://www.itv.com/watch/archie:-the-man-who-became-cary-grant/.