Luke Evans on New ITV Thriller The Party: “It’s Packed With Secrets”

The Party is an electrifying five-part ITV drama adapted from Elizabeth Day’s critically acclaimed novel. The series stars Luke Evans (Nine Perfect Strangers) as journalist Martin Gilmour, whose entire adult life has been dictated by his complex relationship with charismatic high-flying politician Ben Fitzmaurice, played by Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey).

Luke Evans Interview

It was your idea to adapt Elizabeth’s novel for the screen. Tell us about that process.
I read the book and immediately thought, “This is just so fun.” It’s my kind of story. I love the narrative. I love the characters. Selfishly, there was also a great leading role that I could play! I really wanted to develop something, and I’d had such a great experience working with World Productions before on The Pembrokeshire Murders. We’d always said that if there was another opportunity, we’d love to do something together. Then this book landed in my lap, and I just thought this could be it. So I went to Simon Heath at World Productions and said, “I think we should do this together”, and it didn’t take much to convince him. It was a no-brainer really.

When you first read the book, what was it that really gripped you?
Coming from a very working-class background myself, I understood Martin’s journey. Even though it probably wouldn’t have been my choice of journey, I understood him. I got the fact that, through a strange route, this man got what he wanted and succeeded. He came from nothing, but was very clever, almost chameleon-like, in how he could adapt and observe and blend in, and I just thought it was very interesting. In the UK we see a lot of the class system – the entitled, the people with old money, and the people with no money – and those classes don’t mix very often. Only yesterday I was reading an article about the peerage system and all the aristocrats in the House of Lords. They’re all the old land-owning families, and they get to vote and have a say in what goes on in this country. But it’s the working class who keep this country moving. In the drama, you put those two different classes together and see what happens.

Do you identify with Martin?
Absolutely. This kid gets an opportunity to go to an Eton-style school. But he sticks out like a sore thumb and is treated as an outsider by almost everybody. I have always felt like an outsider myself. Even in my industry, when I first became a film actor, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I didn’t feel accepted in the way I saw other people of my age and peer group being accepted. So Martin resonated a lot with me. But I also admired him because it didn’t stop him from keeping going. He was a fighter. He was able to manoeuvre himself into the right places, so the opportunities arose. It’s a very relatable story. There’s ambition there. There’s a want to be loved. There is a want to be accepted. There is a want to be something. Martin always reflected on the fact that his family didn’t have many ambitions. They lived in a small house in South Wales. There was a lot there that made sense to me as a human being, and I thought it would be very interesting to see it on screen.

What was it like working with Tom Cullen who plays Ben?
Tom is just wonderful. The second I read the script, he was the person I wanted to play Ben. I’m six foot, and I come off on screen as a big guy. So for Martin, who is not supposed to be the strongest, biggest man in the room, I knew that I had to have an actor as Ben who I could look up to, admire and feel like he had presence on screen. I’ve met Tom many times at events or awards ceremonies, and I’ve always enjoyed his company. But also, I’ve always been impressed by his stature and his presence. He really is a man’s man, and I think he’s just a brilliant, brilliant actor. So I put forward his name immediately once we started the conversation about casting. I’m just so glad that it all worked out because he really was the only person I wanted to work with in that role.

How would you describe the relationship between Martin and Ben?

When they first meet, there’s this fascination that Martin has with Ben. He doesn’t have any brothers and sisters. He didn’t have anybody to stick up for him. Ben is like this older brother figure, who’s good at sports,
handsome, tall. He’s liked by everybody. All the boys want to be him. All the girls want to be with him. Martin was never that person. He was never picked for the rugby team. As a young kid, it would be thrilling to have
someone like that around to protect you, to want to be in your company and to invite you on summer holidays to his beautiful country house. Instead of going home to the council house with his mum, eating
microwave meals and watching Coronation Street, Martin was able to go hunting and have these wonderful weeks in the summer with Ben.

How do you hope people will respond to The Party?
I think they will be fascinated by it and be desperate to tune in for the next episode. It’s very intriguing. We never leave you with all the answers. That’s a great way of writing an episodic drama where you
don’t answer every single question early on. You feed people the information as you go along, and I think that’s really interesting. But also, I think it is a riveting story about the need to be wanted, and the need to
be accepted, but also the question of how far would you go? What would you sacrifice for somebody? The tragedy of Martin’s life is that he wastes so much time focusing on the wrong things, hurting himself and
other people in the process. But above all, I want people to thoroughly enjoy it. The Party is something that really grips you. It’s like a speeding train and a roller coaster in one!

The Party will premiere on Sunday 11 October at 9pm on ITV1

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