A hospital mix-up leaves two Cornish couples parenting each other’s biological sons, and the four-part miniseries refuses to tidy the fallout. James Norton’s Pete, a woodland-school dad who blogs about gentle parenting, and Niamh Algar’s Maddie, a former city lawyer turned full-time mother, learn their easy-going life with Theo is built on someone else’s child. Across the bay, James McArdle’s bullish property developer Miles and Jessica Brown Findlay’s brittle ex-actress Lucy have raised baby David as a Lamberts Inc. heir. The beachside settlements of St Ives and Padstow provide the postcard backdrop against which solicitors, therapists and tabloids circle while both families test-drive custody swaps that play like custody wars.
Scripted by ex-NHS psychiatrist Grace Ofori-Attah from J.P. Delaney’s bestseller, the drama keeps the moral maths stubbornly unresolved: no couple is obviously villainous, no child is obviously happier, and every kindness carries a hidden invoice. Director Kate Hewitt shoots hand-held through pastel nurseries and glass-box holiday homes so even daylight feels like evidence.
ITV released all four episodes on ITVX on 5 January 2025, then stripped them nightly on ITV1, clocking the streamer’s biggest drama launch figures to date. Critics split: Digital Spy awarded five stars and called it “perfectly addictive”, The Guardian dismissed the same material as “mind-bendingly bad”. Either way, the Cornish tourist board got four prime-time hours of cliffs, surf and tasteful kitchen islands.
Production Details
ITV1 / 1 Season / 4 Episodes / 2025
Created by: Grace Ofori-Attah
Showrunner(s): James Norton, J.P. Delaney, Kitty Kaletsky
Producer(s): Nick Pitt
Main Cast
James Norton as Pete Riley
Niamh Algar as Maddie Wilson
James McArdle as Miles Lambert
Jessica Brown Findlay as Lucy Lambert
Alban Guo as Theo Riley
Fraser Cornelissen as David Lambert
Theo Ogundipe as Ollie
Sunetra Sarker as Anika Chowdhury
Amy Morgan as Jen
Cara Mahoney as Paediatric A&E Doctor
Phil Davis as John Riley
