Award-winning author praises Welsh actor ahead of highly anticipated TV adaption

Amelia Jones  

An award-winning novelist has heaped praise on a Welsh actor taking the lead role in a highly anticipated television adaptation filmed in Wales.

Luke Evans stars in ITV’s five-part drama The Party, adapted from Elizabeth Day’s 2017 novel, with first-look images from the series now released.

Evans plays journalist Martin Gilmour, whose lifelong friendship with wealthy politician Ben Fitzmaurice, played by Tom Cullen, begins to unravel after a lavish birthday party and the police investigation that follows.

For Welsh audiences, the series has a particularly strong local connection, with Evans returning to a project that he has championed from the very beginning.

In a social media post, the author said of Evans: “It was Luke who first read the book and decided it simply had to be a television series. He’s been championing it ever since and now joins me as executive producer on the series.”

Day has described the release of the first-look images as “a completely surreal experience,” having watched characters she spent years imagining finally come to life on screen.

She added: “Luke Evans plays Martin Gilmour, the character I spent years building in my head.”

The Welsh connection extends beyond Evans, with the production being filmed in Wales ahead of its ITV1 and STV broadcast this autumn.

The production is being filmed on location across south Wales, with primary production hubs in Cardiff and Rhondda Cynon Taf, as well as spots like Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Joanna Scanlan plays Martin’s mother, Sylvia, while Douglas Hodge and Lindsay Duncan portray Lord and Lady Fitzmaurice. Sarah Solemani has adapted the novel for television and also stars as Martin’s wife, Lucy.

Day said Solemani’s adaptation captures the story’s central themes of “class, loyalty, shame” and the stories people tell to protect those they cannot bear to lose.

An exact broadcast date for The Party has yet to be announced, but the series is due to arrive on screens this autumn.

You can see the first look images here. 

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