Why ITV’s Playing Nice is a terrifying advert for parenthood

When a new year rolls around, it brings with it the promise of a fresh batch of ‘must-see’ TV and this year, there really is one drama you must see. ITV’s new four-part baby-swap drama, Playing Nice, to be specific.

The story goes like this: two couples - Pete (James Norton) and his chef wife Maddie (Niamh Algar), and Miles (James McArdle) and his wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay) - learn that the sons they’ve spent the last three years loving and raising are not in fact theirs. At least not biologically. Due to a hospital mix-up, they've been raising each other's children.

“We think you left the hospital with another couple’s son, and they left with your biological son,” the CEO of Cornwall’s Hospital Trust tells Pete and Maddie during one of the drama's early scenes. The couple despair: “But how can you be so sure?” There were only two premature babies admitted that day, they’re told. Theo isn't theirs. But David, who has been raised by Miles and Lucy, is.

It's a gut-wrenching watch in every sense of the word. The moment that Miles arrives on Pete and Maddie’s doorstep and declares, “I’m the other dad” is squirm-inducing to say the least. As is the moment the couples sit down together to discuss their horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they’ve raised, or do they reclaim their biological child? And then there's the scene where one of the boys says sweetly, "I want to be like mummy", none the wiser that this isn’t his ‘real’ mummy.

Many of us will be familiar with TV dramas that play on the fears one might have as a parent or a prospective one. There was ITV’s The Cry, where Jenna Coleman lost her child in Australia. And The Replacement, which was enough to put any mother off taking maternity leave. This, it quickly becomes clear, plays on another one of those fears - perhaps even the worst of them.

At first, I should add, both couples do appear to come to an agreement. They will each keep the child they’ve raised, but play a role in their biological child’s life, too. So far, so amicable. But only two scenes later, Miles is watching video footage of both children playing together from their first meeting and we begin to see there might be other motives at play. And indeed there are. As episode one draws to a close, we get the revelation we've been waiting for: Miles wants custody of both boys.

As a woman who's yet to determine whether or not I’ll have a child myself, it’s a somewhat terrifying advert for parenthood. Not least because as James Norton pointed out recently, accidental baby swaps do happen. "There was a case like two weeks ago where two women found out – they were much older, they were they were adults – but they found out that they had been swapped and they had led totally different lives," he said. "It happens more than you'd think."

Fear aside, this isn’t to say Playing Nice isn't good viewing. It’s more than good, it’s brilliant in fact. James Norton’s performance (he’s also executive producer) is extraordinary, as is the depth of emotion from the other three lead characters. So I implore you to tune in - just don’t expect to feel broody after. And if you do have children, you might find yourself down a Google rabbit hole after.

Playing Nice is currently airing on ITV1.