Fans wowed by ‘uncanny’ first-look images of Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in new ITV drama

Harry Potter star takes on the Hollywood Icon in forthcoming series, ‘Archie’

The first images of Jason Isaacs in character as Hollywood icon Cary Grant have been released by BritBox and ITVX.

Isaacs, 60, who played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series, takes on Grant in the forthcoming four-part drama, titled Archie after the late actor’s birth name (Archibald Alexander Leach).

In the images, Isaacs is seen wearing generous amounts of fake tan, thick-rimmed glasses and neat, silver-black hair in a side parting.

Reacting to the new photos on Twitter/X, fans commented positively on Isaacs’s transformation.

“Jason Isaacs makes for a rather uncanny Cary Grant in the promo shots for the upcoming Archie limited series on Britbox,” one person tweeted.

“You know what… that works for me,” another agreed.

“Dead ringer!” said a third.

Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in ‘Archie’ (ITV)

The biopic series was first announced in August last year. Sharing the news on X, Isaacs wrote: “There was and only ever will be one Cary Grant. I can’t wait to play Archie Leach, though, who struggled to play Cary Grant himself. A fascinating, complicated, haunted man who was much, much more beautiful than me (thanks Twitter!).

“Here goes something.”

In a statement to Deadline, Isaacs added: “Cary Grant became one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth century, beloved by presidents and paupers. The key to everything, lay in his childhood.”

Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in ‘Archie’ (ITV)

Grant was born into extreme poverty in Bristol in 1904. At the age of 16, he emigrated to the US as a stage performer with the Pender Troupe before moving to Hollywood and establishing himself as one of the definitive leading men of his generation.

He formed a close working relationship with Alfred Hitchcock, starring in four of his pictures: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).

Archie is written by Philomena and Stan & Ollie writer Jeff Pope and will premiere on ITV and ITVX in December. In the US, the miniseries will premiere on Britbox.

Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in ‘Archie’ (ITV)

Per BritBox, “Archie tells the story of a young Archibald Alexander Leach’s troubled childhood and how extreme poverty, his father’s adultery and the loss of his older brother John tore the family apart and sent his loving mother into a downward spiral of grief and depression. Jeff Pope’s scripts reveal how deceit, cruelty and one, overpowering lie shaped Archie’s life.”

Dainton Anderson, Calam Lynch and Oaklee Pendergast play young versions of Grant.

The series also stars Laura Aikman as Cary’s ex-wife, actress and filmmaker Dyan Cannon, with Harriet Walter as Elsie Leach, Cary’s mother. Kara Tointon will play young Elsie.

Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in ‘Archie’ (ITV)

Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in ‘Archie’ (ITV)