The Stage

ITV1 signs Clunes for Losing It

Published Tuesday 7 March 2006 at 13:25 by Liz Thomas

Martin Clunes is to star in a single drama for ITV1 about a man who discovers he has testicular cancer.

Entitled Losing It, the production has been written by Paul Mendelson, who has worked on shows such as My Hero, So Haunt Me and May to December. The drama is based on Mendelson’s experiences after being diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was creative director of a leading advertising agency in the late eighties.

He says: “Losing It is a comedy drama about how life doesn’t stop when a member of the family has a serious illness, either for him or the people around him. Work still has to be done, bosses placated, clients handled, bills paid and family cared for. It’s about how one person’s illness is the family’s illness and it shows how we don’t always behave the way we would wish to behave.”

Clunes plays advertising executive Phil MacNaughtan and Soldier, Soldier actress Holly Aird stars as his wife Nancy. It is being made for the network by independent production house Clerkenwell Films, which made hit dramas Afterlife and Quite Ugly One Morning and was co-founded by John Hannah. Ben Bolt is directing and Murray Ferguson is producing the drama.

Ferguson said: “It is a sensitively written, entertaining drama that has a difficult and often overlooked subject at its heart. It’s brilliant that we have Martin Clunes playing Phil. His extraordinary ability to encompass comedy and deep-felt emotion in one performance is crucial for this role.”