Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Archie’ On BritBox, A Scripted Series About The Life Of Cary Grant

Most people know that the actor Cary Grant’s real name is Archibald Leach, and that he was born in Bristol, England. But how much do we know about Archie Leach’s background? Archie takes a look at Grant’s life, with much of the material based on Dear Cary: My Life With Cary Grant by actress Dyan Cannon, who was married to Grant from 1965 to ’68 (Cannon and Jennifer Grant, the daughter they had together, are executive producers on the project).

ARCHIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “BENEDICT CANYON, LOS ANGELES, 1961.” Cary Grant (Jason Isaacs) is lying in bed on the phone, watching a rocket launch on TV. “Looking back, you think I should have been happier,” Grant says in voice over

The Gist: The show hops between time periods, with 1986 being a base. That is the year that Grant died while on tour with his show A Conversation With Cary Grant. At a show in Illinois, he starts talking about his childhood, and we see his current life melding with his past. In Bristol when he was 7 (Dainton Anderson), his older brother died, and his family had little to no money. His father Elias (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), seeing an opportunity, decides to commit Archie’s distraught mother Elise (Kara Tointon) to an asylum and fobs Archie off on his grandmother; the next time Elias sees Archie, he tells the boy that his mother has died while at that asylum.

In Los Angeles in 1961, Grant is shooting North By Northwest for Alfred Hitchcock (Ian McNeice), and, fresh off his third divorce, he becomes intrigued by a young actress named Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman). He requests a meeting with her under the guise of offering her a role in one of his films, but she pushes him off for months, telling him she has to finish shooting a project. When they finally do meet, they hit it off; she’s not even upset when he tells her that the role he had her in mind for months before was no longer available.

Back in England, 14-year-old Archie (Oaklee Pendergast) decides to forge his father’s signature on a letter that allows him to join a travelling circus group; when the ringleader calls Elias, the two have a confrontation but Elias allows him to join for — of course — a regular stipend. As the circus comes to New York, Archie feeds off the city’s energy, including his first sexual experience with an audience member named Rose (Ainy Medina).

In 1986, after an incident at the Joliet show, Cary’s doctor tells him he suffered a minor stroke and he should take it easy, but it seems like Grant, now in his 80s, wants to hear none of that.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Archie is of similar style to biographical series like Mike or Class Act.

Our Take: We appreciated that Archie didn’t tell Cary Grant’s story in a straight timeline, mainly because we didn’t want to spend the entire first episode in the 1910s and 20s, watching young Archie plod through his depressing childhood and his coming-of-age years. The point that writer Jeff Pope wanted to make with the story is that, even to Cary Grant himself, the charismatic persona that most people associate with him is just that: a persona. And, even with all of the narrative gymnastics that are made to link the multiple timelines together, that aspect of Grant’s story comes through loud and clear.

Isaacs isn’t trying to do the “Judy Judy Judy” caricature of Grant that permeated pop culture during Grant’s lifetime (it’s a phrase Grant claims he never said); he has some of Grant’s suave lilt in his voice, but he plays Grant as more of the vulnerable, somewhat insecure guy who seemed to always want for more, even when he was at the top of the Hollywood leading man heap.

That alone is enough to ensure that the show won’t fly into self-parody, but the anchor will also be his tumultuous marriage to Cannon, and Aikman shows that Cannon was a good match for Grant, at least at the beginning of their relationship. In a scene where the two of them have a fully-dressed dinner in Grant’s bed — one of the signs that show his lack of pretention and embrace of his luxurious life — he tells her that he doesn’t want to have children. Yet, Jennifer Grant is the product of their union, so we’re curious to see just how Cannon changed his mind. The series will also touch on Grant’s friendship with Randolph Scott, which was rumored to be romantic.

Sex and Skin: No real skin, but we see teenage Archie having sex with Rose.

Parting Shot: Young Archie decides to stay in New York, so we see him starting his life there as his circus colleagues leave town.

Sleeper Star: Even though Ainy Medina was in only a few scenes as Rose, we liked her world-weary but hopeful portrayal of a young woman who is willing to take a teenager’s virginity but wants to be available to meet the guy who’s going to make her rich.

Most Pilot-y Line: Because of all of the storytelling potential, we can forgive some of the scenes that are anachronistically stylized, like a scene from the circus that looks like it’s made on Super 8 film with a modern dance beat in the foreground, or scenes where the older Grant shares space with the young Archie. Those moments can get annoying, but they’re not intrusive enough to detract from showing Cary Grant in a light that we haven’t seen him in before.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite some stylistic missteps, Archie is a well-paced story about the life of Cary Grant, who most of us really only know from the roles he played in films that are 60 or more years old.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.