What time is Playing Nice on ITV? Start time and what James Norton show is about

• Playing Nice debuts on ITV tonight.
• James Norton stars in the 2025 drama.
• It is based on a best selling book of the same name.

ITV is kicking off 2025 with a major new drama series. Playing Nice debuts in a few hours and could be a big blockbuster.

Happy Valley villain James Norton plays the lead role in the show, which is based on a best-selling book by the same name. It will follow the double bill of The Masked Singer and Limitless Win.

But what time is it on - and what is the show actually about? Here’s all you need to know:

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What time is Playing Nice on ITV?

The new splashy drama starts on ITV today (January 5) and takes the prime slot of 9pm on a Sunday night. Each episode will be an hour, including adverts.

What is Playing Nice about?

Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up, and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?

Living a waking nightmare, Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple; Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay). At first it seems all four are agreed on a solution, but it soon becomes clear that hidden motives are at play. How far can each couple trust the real parents of their child – or even each other? As Pete and Maddie are stretched to breaking point, they realise they will stop at nothing to keep their family together.

It is based on the book of the same name (Playing Nice) by author J.P. Delaney

Will you be tuning in to watch Playing Nice? Let me know by emailing me: [email protected].