Written by Paul Mayhew-Archer and directed by the Oscar-winning John Madden (‘Shakespeare in Love’), the film also features Monica Dolan and Rory Kinnear.
Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Laura Linney (Ozark, Love Actually, John Adams) and BAFTA award winner Rhys Ifans (Inheritance, Venom: The Last Dance, House of the Dragon) will star in the BBC film But When We Dance, “a touching story about two people with lots in common – a great sense of humor, a love of dance, and Parkinson’s.”
Monica Dolan (Mr Bates v’s The Post Office, Sherwood, Black Mirror), Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Bank of Dave), and Paul Mayhew-Archer (The Vicar of Dibley, Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot) are also part of the ensemble cast unveiled on Wednesday, with further casting to be announced at a later stage.
The 90-minute film is written by Mayhew-Archer, directed by Oscar winner John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Operation Mincemeat, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and produced by Hilltop Screen, a John Gore Studios company, for the BBC One network and the BBC iPlayer streaming service.
Set and filmed in North Norfolk, Ifans plays Tony Evans, the deputy head of a local primary school. Linney stars as Emma Dretzin, a pianist, composer and single mother of two daughters. “Neither knows the other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they are both confronted with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s,” reads a synopsis.
Shared Mayhew-Archer: “In 2011, when I was 58 years old, I was told I had Parkinson’s. It’s incurable, and it makes many of the things I do – walking, talking, smiling – increasingly difficult. But though I have reasons to hate Parkinson’s, it has also brought me opportunities I wouldn’t have missed for the world.”