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The Party stars Luke Evans and Sarah Solemani play husband and wife in ITV’s gripping new five-part drama

The Party stars Luke Evans and Sarah Solemani have opened up about playing husband and wife in ITV’s gripping new drama.

The pair portray couple Martin Gilmour and Lucy Farni and Luke, who also serves as executive producer, originally conceived the idea of bringing Elizabeth Day’s widely praised novel to the small screen.

Showrunner and actress Sarah was subsequently approached by the team behind The Pembrokeshire Murders, World Productions, to adapt Elizabeth’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name.

Reflecting on his collaboration with Sarah, Luke said: “The wonderful part of this whole project, of course, is that very soon after she’d written a few episodes, she expressed an interest in playing Lucy.

“I thought it was just absolutely perfect. I thought, ‘What a brilliant thing. Now we’ll have the writer on set’.”, reports Wales Online.

“Any changes we want to make, or any conversations we want to have, there won’t be any phones being picked up. We can just literally go, ‘Sarah, what do you think of this?'”.

“That is exactly what happened. It was such a rewarding experience. She’s immensely talented in so many different ways, and it was just wonderful to see her just fill this character, and also to build this on-screen relationship together. I loved every day I was on set with Sarah. It was really special.”

Sarah has since spoken out about her own experience of collaborating with Luke on the project. She revealed: “It was wonderful. I hadn’t worked with him before.

“I was making a show with David E. Kelley, starring Nicole Kidman, and I asked Nicole about him because they had just done Nine Perfect Strangers together.

“I was really blown away by him in that – it was probably the performance that made me think ‘I would love to work with this actor’. And so, I asked Nicole about him, and she said he was not only just a brilliant actor, but he was great fun. That counts for a lot.

“When you’re jumping into bed with someone on a production and spending a lot of time together, it’s important to have a good vibe on set – and he really had that.

“So it was Nicole’s recommendation that made me trust that Luke would be excellent – and he was. He was very grateful for the scripts and really dedicated to making the best story we could.”

The Party continues on Tuesday, October 13 on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm

STACEY Solomon has explained why all of her sons are sleeping in the same room at her new £2million mansion – after it was revealed that she is the sole owner of the property. 

Yesterday The Sun told how Stacey, 36, bought the sprawling Essex home without the help of partner Joe Swash. 

The Sort Your Life Out host – mum to Zachary, 18, Leighton, 14, Rex, seven, Rose, four, and three-year-old Belle – has been keeping fans up-to-date on her makeover plans for the house.

In a new clip shared on social media Stacey shared how renovations mean the boys are currently packed into the same bedroom. 

She said: “All the boys are sleeping in one room because they don’t have bedrooms yet because we’re working on the upstairs.  

“They’re all sleeping in one room downstairs, it’s like The Brady Bunch when they go to bed.” 

CARD CLASH

Stacey Solomon hits out after she’s accused of ‘skipping queue’ at Pokemon event

HOME TRUTHS

Stacey Solomon buys new £2m mansion on her OWN – without Joe

Stacey and Joe stunned fans earlier this month when they packed up their dream home Pickle Cottage – which she bought alone in 2021 for £1.3million – and moved to the new property. 

On Thursday The Sun revealed how the former Loose Women panelist purchased it without the help of Joe, 44.

A well-placed insider told us: “Stacey’s a canny businesswoman and was also the sole owner of Pickle Cottage, which sold for over £1million, so it made sense she’d buy the new home on her own.

“She even got some money knocked off the official asking price.

“Stacey paid over £2m for the new Essex mansion – but she’s worth over £10m so that’s not even a dent in her bank balance.”

Earlier this year The Sun told how Stacey – who it was previously revealed is not legally married to former EastEnders star Joe despite a lavish wedding at Pickle Cottage – had hit the £10million mark in her business empire.