Over the past decade, chat show supremo Graham Norton has cultivated a very successful sideline writing a series of bestselling novels. They’re mostly about dark family secrets and malicious gossip set against a background of tight-knit Irish communities.
His debut book, Holding, was previously adapted into a four-part ITV drama starring Conleth Hill and Siobhan McSweeney. Now 5 has given his 2022 novel Forever Home the TV treatment.
Set in Northumberland instead of Ireland – and with the main character’s name changed from Declan to Robert – we are plunged straight into the dark heart of this tale. Robert (Douglas Henshall) brutally tells his two bewildered young children that their mother has left them to run off with his brother. He insists that they are never to mention her name again before they’re packed off to their bedrooms without so much as a consoling hug.
Twenty years later, they’ve grown up and moved out of the family home. Now Robert is living with a nice 40-something divorcee named Carol (Downton Abbey and Emmerdale’s Amy Nuttall). She clearly loves Robert, but he is dealing with the fact that he has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.
Not only is that a bit worrying for the patients at the pharmacy where he still works, but even more alarming is his very odd behaviour about the out-of-bounds cellar in the house. You don’t have to be Miss Marple to have a stab – no pun intended – at what that’s all about. Here’s a hint: it’s not to be avoided, despite his insistence, because it’s riddled with asbestos.
What’s also not surprising is that his offspring Kaden (Emmerdale and former Strictly star Lewis Cope) and Sally (Heartstopper’s Jenny Walser) were seriously traumatised by the loss of their mother and their unloving upbringing. They’re vile to Carol, rarely see their cold-hearted father and are selfish, duplicitous and self-obsessed. As Robert’s dementia worsens almost directly in line with the messy state of their personal lives, it’s a volatile mix that is looking unlikely to end well…
If you’ve read any of Norton’s books, you’ll know he can tell a good story, and this adaptation, taken from page-to-screen by writer Clara Salaman (Netflix’s Too Close), is also incredibly watchable. The plot may start out on a slightly predictable path, but it picks up; twisting and turning most intriguingly. You’ll be open-mouthed with horror at the end.
Like many 5 dramas, it’s not especially demanding and the characters are painted with very broad brushstrokes, but the cast give it their all. Emmerdale’s James Baxter and Denise Welch also star while you’ll briefly spot Kevin Whately in episode 1. With a signing such as his on the show’s call sheet it’s inevitable we will see more of his character towards the end of the series. Samantha Bond, recently seen in the deliciously genteel Agatha Christie-style The Marlow Murder Club, makes an appearance, too.
Norton has said that having been inspired by the simple idea of the “what if” scenarios and complexities that come with later-life relationships, the novel’s plot gradually evolved into a “funny, twisted, dark romp full of farcical scenes". While it deals with serious subjects including dementia and murder, there are also some ludicrous snort-with-laughter moments.
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