Line of Duty and The Durrells star Keeley Hawes discusses stepping into production with her company Buddy Club for ITV’s blackly comic drama Finding Alice.

Keeley Hawes not only stars in almost every scene of her latest drama, Finding Alice, but worked behind the camera as a producer as well. Helming the new ITV primetime show in every sense might seem like a daunting prospect, but the actor says it’s actually less nerve-wracking than popping in and out of a series.

“I actually think it’s more difficult if you come and in and out of a show, going away for a couple of weeks and then coming back,” she says. “You have to overcome the usual nerves every time – at least that’s my experience.

“So it is actually a luxury to be in every scene. It happened when I was in The Durrells too, and it is sort of something you get used to; and when they are brilliant scenes, it is hardly an issue.”

It was while filming The Durrells in Corfu that Hawes, writer Simon Nye and director Roger Goldby came up with the idea of six-part Finding Alice. Like Hawes’ character Louisa in the hit period drama, Alice has been recently widowed – but this series could not be more contemporary. The show opens on the day Alice’s builder husband Harry has died after falling down the stairs of the uber-contemporary new dream home the pair and their daughter moved into earlier that day. The series then follows what unfolds as Harry’s death leaves a storm of secrets and mess Alice is forced to confront.

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