Lennie James “can’t wait” to play an ageing love-rat in a new drama.
Lennie James ‘can’t wait’ to play an ageing love-rat in a new drama
The ‘Line of Duty’ actor, 57, has signed up to star in a BBC TV version of Bernardine Evaristo’s ‘Mr Loverman’, which tells of pensioner Barrington who has been cheating on his wife with his best friend Morris.
Lennie, who has three children with wife Giselle Glasman, said: “I can't wait to get Barrington's swagger on and help tell this crucial and complicated love story. As funny as it is sad. As full of heart as it is heartache... .”
A synopsis for the eight-part drama, set to start shooting later this year, says ‘Mr Loverman’ is “a life-affirming story about family, love, and being true to yourself”.
It adds Lennie’s character is “Barrington Jedidiah Walker, Esq. Barry to his mates. Trouble to his wife, his daughters, and his lover.”
It tells how the 70-year-old Antiguan born, “exuberant Hackney personality” is known for his dapper taste and fondness for retro suits.
Carmel, his wife of 50 years, senses Barry has been cheating on her with other women but doesn’t suspect he’s been having a secret, decades-long passionate affair with his best friend and soulmate, Morris.
The blurb for the shows adds: “Now entering the next chapter of his life, Barry has big choices to make that will force his whole family to question their own futures.
“Bringing to life Bernardine Evaristo’s ground-breaking exploration of Britain’s older Caribbean community, Mr Loverman paints an incisive portrait of a family, exploring aspirations and regret, parenthood, and social expectations about sexual orientation and love.”
Novelist Bernardino, 64, said about her excitement at seeing her 2013 novel being adapted: “I am thrilled that Mr Loverman is being adapted into television drama. I love the idea of them stepping beyond the pages of the novel and into people’s living rooms and lives.”
Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, said: “Mr Loverman is a must-read novel, and in the skilled hands of Nathaniel, Lennie and the Fable team it’s soon to be must-see television. I can’t think of a more perfect team to bring Bernardine’s exquisite story to the screen.”
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