Starting this Sunday night on ITV, The Party is a gripping five-part drama adapted from Elizabeth Day’s acclaimed novel, starring Luke Evans as Martin Gilmour, a journalist whose life has been shaped by his lifelong friendship with Ben Fitzmaurice, a wealthy and charismatic politician played by Tom Cullen.
Raised by his working-class mother, Sylvia (BAFTA award-winning Joanna Scanlan), Martin wins a scholarship to an elite boarding school, where he meets Ben for the first time. The pair develop a powerful bond, with Ben and his family giving Martin the sense of belonging he has always longed for. In return, Martin remains fiercely loyal to Ben, standing by him through even the most difficult moments.
Thirty years later, Martin attends Ben’s lavish birthday party at the Fitzmaurice family’s country estate. But celebrations are thrown into turmoil when news breaks that the Conservative Party leader has resigned, prompting Ben to consider launching a leadership bid. Martin fears the attention a political campaign would attract, potentially bringing long-buried secrets to light with devastating consequences.
The story unfolds through a combination of the dramatic events at the party, the police investigation that follows and flashbacks to Martin and Ben’s schooldays, university years and hedonistic nights out in London.
At its heart, The Party is an exploration of identity, privilege, loyalty and devotion, as well as a poignant story about the struggle to live authentically and the price people may pay for keeping the truth hidden.
Tom Cullen tells us more.
What appealed to you about The Party?
A few things. I was doing a film in North Wales, and Luke reached out to me. He said he’d been developing this for a few years, and he’d really like me to play opposite him. I knew Luke a bit, we share the same
agent, and I’d met him out and about a few times. Both being Welsh, we were attracted to each other. I think he’s a fantastic actor and a lovely person. So I read the script and thought it was brilliant.
Was Sarah Solemani also a draw for you?
Definitely. Sarah is someone I’ve known for a long time. We did a project together about 10 years ago, and I just absolutely adore her and her brain. She’s so smart and funny, and that’s what I loved about the
scripts. They were so agile and fun, but also really hooky. The film I’d been doing was this really heavy drama, and so when came in, it felt like it would be something that people would really enjoy sitting down to watch. It’s a great bit of escapism, and I really fancied doing that.
Ben is a great character to play, isn’t he?
Absolutely. He’s an aristocrat born into wealth, and so he’s incredibly privileged, and he carries that around with him. But there’s also something really interesting about him in that he’s also trapped by this
privilege and this secret pull that’s within him. The show really is about what happens when someone isn’t allowed to be their true self, and I feel like that with Ben. He has this exterior world and this interior world
that are constantly at odds with one another. On the outside, you see this entitled aristocrat, but inside he’s actually this quite vulnerable guy who just hates the world he’s been born into. I found that contradiction
really fun to play.
How would you characterise Ben’s relationship with Martin?
When Ben meets Martin, it’s like a door opening to another world, another existence. I think what Martin offers to him is a chance to be his true self. But the problem is that because Ben can’t live authentically,
what happens is that he starts to take advantage of that, and he is not emotionally intelligent enough to know how to navigate his feelings, his emotions, his identity. At its heart, that’s what the show is about. It’s
about what happens when we aren’t able to live our lives authentically, and also the trauma that is handed down through fathers, and through this archaic patriarchal system that so many men find themselves
trapped in. Ben is definitely one of them.
What do you hope that people will take away from The Party?
I hope they love it. It’s a thriller, but the scripts are also so funny, and the characters are big and bold and enjoyable to watch. But it’s got a real depth to it as well, in that it’s a study about what happens when we’re
unable to live our true selves and the pain that comes with that. And so, maybe an audience will go away and think about the way that they’re living their lives and make some changes to be more aligned with
themselves. But ultimately, I hope people just really enjoy the escapism of it and have fun – which, goodness knows, we all need at the moment!
Find out where and when to watch The Party, plus more about the cast and story, here.