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TV: Old friends. Obsession. One big secret… Inside ITVX’s Riviera thriller

© Press Association ImagesIoan Gruffudd (Thomas) and Shemss Audat (Manon).
Ioan Gruffudd (Thomas) and Shemss Audat (Manon).

French Riviera-set series The Reunion is the latest in a long line of glossy dramas for ITVX, the newest streaming channel on the block.

The six-parter follows the story of student Vinca Rockwell, played by Ivanna Sakhno, who disappeared 25 years earlier during a snowstorm.

Years later, when her former friends are reunited, they start to seek answers about Vinca and her mysterious and sudden disappearance.

Adapted from Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel The Reunion, aka La Jeune Fille Et La Nuit, the six-part drama stars Ioan Gruffudd as writer Thomas Degalais, who has always carried a torch for Vinca. Gregory Fitoussi plays Thomas’s best friend from childhood, Maxime Biancardini, while actress Vahina Giocante stars as Fanny Brahimi, who still has feelings for Thomas.

Gruffudd, 49, whose acting CV includes big-budget movies Black Hawk Down, Horrible Bosses and Titanic, can pick and choose his roles these days but was gripped by the character.

He said: “He’s somebody who is running away from his past. He’s an obsessive character and he’s especially obsessed with Vinca.

“She lives on in all of the novels he’s subsequently written and he can’t shake her. I also think his upbringing was probably a little bit cold and distant. His parents were teachers at the school he attended and it is revealed that they aren’t all that they seem either. Thomas feels a bit empty inside and he’s searching for some closure. He’s a restless character.

“The book was very popular in France and it resonates internationally, especially for people of my age because it’s partly about being young in the early ’90s as well as being the age we are now.”

Gruffudd was also attracted to the exotic location and enjoyed the French working culture.

He said: “The climate is wonderful, the infrastructure is terrific, you’ve got talent from all over France and Italy who came to either act or work on the show, and there’s such a reverence towards filmmaking in France. It feels like being part of a very rich culture.

“The French working day is very precise and specific. It’s different to the American version, where you sort of work until you’ve finished the day and it doesn’t matter if you do X amount of overtime. In France, you finish when you are supposed to finish, so you have your evening and your dinner. It’s very civilised.”


The Reunion, ITVX, from Thursday