David Morrissey, Luke Treadway Cast in ITV’s ‘The Singapore Grip’ Adaptation
David Morrissey, Luke Treadway and Charles Dance have been cast in “The Singapore Grip,” an ITV drama adaptation of the J.G. Farrell novel. Oscar winning screenwriter and playwright Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons”) is adapting the book, which is set during World War II and follows a British family living in Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion.
“As a great admirer and, eventually, a friend of J.G.Farrell, I was delighted to be invited to adapt The Singapore Grip, a panoramic account of the disastrous loss of Singapore to the Japanese invaders in 1942,” Hampton said.
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Luke Treadaway (“Ordeal By Innocence”) will star as the reluctant hero of the piece and innocent abroad Matthew Webb. Morrissey (“The Walking Dead”) will play a ruthless rubber merchant, Walter Blackett, who is head of British Singapore’s most powerful firm alongside his business partner Webb, played by Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”).
Jane Horrocks (“Little Voice”), Colm Meaney (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”), Elizabeth Tan (“Coronation Street”), and newcomer Georgia Blizzard will also star.
For producer Mammoth Screen it is another World War II project. The ITV-backed shingle is already making Helen Hunt starrer “World on Fire.” Like that series, “The Singapore Grip” is being distributed by ITV’s sales arm ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
Mammoth Screen’s Damien Timmer said: “Forty years after it was first written, bringing The Singapore Grip to the screen is a passion project for all of us. It’s an exceptionally well-crafted novel which has been adapted with unique flair and mischief by Christopher.”
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