Playing Nice star James Norton explains major change from novel

Playing Nice star James Norton has explained one major change from J.P. Delaney's novel of the same name, upon which the ITV thriller is based.

The four-parter, which concludes on Monday night, follows two sets of parents as they discover their toddlers were swapped at birth in hospital. As they're suddenly thrust into each other's lives, they must decide whether to keep the child they've raised or reclaim their biological son. But with hidden motives at play, things aren't as straightforward as they initially seem.

Speaking to HELLO! on the set of the show during filming in Cornwall, James – who is an executive producer through his production company Rabbit Track Pictures – explained the change in location from London, which is where the book is set, to the sweeping landscape of Cornwall.

"We wanted to take it out of London to open it up to the wider country," explained the 39-year-old, who plays stay-at-home dad Pete in the series. "London shows are very exciting. They feel quite metropolitan and sometimes certain shows really fit that kind of London energy because it's such a metropolitan, multicultural hub."

"For us, we wanted to make it more specific to an area and as a result, feel more British by rooting it in a community, particularly like Cornwall, which is very characterful and feels idiosyncratic in its Cornishness."

The Happy Valley star continued: "So when were brainstorming, we were thinking, 'Where is there in the UK which is both beautiful and foreboding?' We didn't want a kind of picturesque chocolate box version of Cornwall. We wanted to use the really beautiful and yet quite foreboding coastline as a sort of aesthetic jumping-off point for the atmosphere of the piece. So when we were thinking of places which have beauty and have that sense of slightly sinister, foreboding coastline, Cornwall was there.

"Grace [Ofori-Attah, writer] came down here for a couple of research trips, she started kind of thinking about how it would fit, who these people might be, the restaurant that Maddie runs and this huge, austere house that Miles has built on this cliff and this view, which he's kind of stolen from the public, just suddenly started to make real sense," he added.

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James also revealed that Cornwall has been a big inspiration for his portrayal of Pete, who he describes as a "Cornish, everyman".

"When we decided to take the book out of London and put it here, that's when I started to become really excited about Pete," said James, who drew on friends of his from Cornwall to inform his character.

"There's a Cornish energy, and I've seen it in friends of mine, the West Country Cornwall energy, there's a capacity for joy down here," continued the star. "I had a couple of friends who are actors, who I probably shouldn't mention, they became a sort of leaping off point for me, because they really encapsulated that kind of energy, whatever that kind of ineffable thing is that defines a Cornish soul. I could see it in these friends of mine and I really wanted to try and capture it," he added.

Playing Nice is available to stream on ITVX.