FAMILY MISFORTUNES

ITV's four-part drama 'Playing Nice' is bland porridge that buries any potential for a good thriller

- Nick Hilton

Kids can be a handful, right? From The Omen to The Midwich Cuckoos, film and television loves to show the disconnect between parents and progeny. But what if that dynamic was shaped, not by some demonic force, but by an apparent administrative error? That’s the question posed by ITV’s new four-part drama, Playing Nice, which follows two families navigating the total upending of their domestic lives.

Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) live a seemingly idyllic life in Cornwall with their young son Theo. Idyllic, that is, until they get word from the hospital: Theo might not be their biological son. It seems that there was a switch-up during his difficult birth, meaning that they swapped babies with another couple, Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay).

“With your cooperation we will get to the bottom of this,” a hospital goon tells the couple. And they do cooperate – they play nice, so to speak – engaging with the other family, and agreeing to an arrangement where all four parents are involved in both children’s lives. But these are uncharted waters, and things rapidly begin to disintegrate.