His turbulent personal life has attracted more headlines for Ioan Gruffudd than his career recently. His acrimonious divorce from actress Alice Evans, the couple having split in early 2021 after 13 years of marriage and two daughters, has been played out in mortifying detail in the media, as have details of his subsequent financial problems and his new romance with Australian actress Bianca Wallace.
So the Welsh actor will be hoping the focus shifts back to his work with new thriller The Reunion, a six-part adaptation of a bestselling novel by French author Guillaume Musso, on ITVX this week. It’s set on the glamorous Côte d’Azur and Ioan plays Thomas Degalais, a writer haunted by his lost love Vinca Rockwell (Ivanna Sakhno).
When they attended an elite international school 25 years ago, his unrequited love for Vinca involved him in a murder that’s in danger of being exposed.
Told in two timelines that cover the torment of obsessive young love and the regrets of middle age, the drama reveals how teenage Thomas (played by newcomer Billy Gunnion) was infatuated with enigmatic Vinca. When she confesses a secret to him, he becomes party to a murder and asks his friends to dispose of the body.
Ivanna Sakhno as Vinca and Billy Gunnion as the young Thomas in a new six-part thriller, The Reunion (pictured)
Vinca then disappears, never to be seen again. Fast forward 25 years and Thomas is reunited with the two people to whom he’s bound by the events of that night. But how long can they keep their secret hidden?
‘I loved the story and the script,’ says Ioan, 49. ‘I thought, “What’s the character? Can I play him? What can I get my teeth into?” Add the South of France into the mix and I thought, “I’ve got to leap on board.”’
Ioan first found fame in 1998 with nautical adventure series Hornblower, before getting his Hollywood break as Mr Fantastic in two Fantastic Four films. After a few fallow years he got a kickstart with 2017 date-rape drama Liar, a smash hit for ITV in which he played dastardly doctor Andrew Earlham opposite Joanne Froggatt.
This led to the lead role in Australian crime drama Harrow, on the set of which he met Bianca, 30.
Ioan Gruffudd plays Thomas as an adult. The Welsh actor is hoping to shift the focus back to his work with his new thriller after his divorce was heavily covered in the media
As his marriage imploded, with unsavoury tweets flying back and forth, Ioan was candid about running out of money, saying his work had dried up and begging the LA court to let him sell the $2m house in which his wife and children are living.
Fortunately, The Reunion has the psychological complexity, beguiling setting and murderous twists required to deflect attention from his domestic dramas. As with Dr Earlham, Ioan brings a cocky charm to Thomas, who returns to the scene of his crime when it becomes clear he should have stayed away.
‘As a consequence, the viewer gets to see why he shouldn’t have come back,’ explains Ioan. ‘The whole mystery starts to unravel.’
Who doesn’t love a murder mystery? And there’s the aspect of how the truth always catches up with you
The school gym where the corpse is buried is to be demolished, inevitably leading to discovery. ‘The Reunion is not only about who we are now, it’s about what made us the people we are,’ says producer Sydney Gallonde.
‘Our main characters are all played by two different actors, which helps illustrate how the past defines us.’
Thomas’s accomplices are his schoolfriends Maxime Biancardini (Spiral’s Grégory Fitoussi) and Fanny Brahimi (Vahina Giocante), while Dervla Kirwan and Rupert Graves play Thomas’s parents.
Shooting on the French Riviera was a bonus for LA-based Ioan. ‘The climate’s wonderful, the infrastructure’s terrific and their working day is very specific.
‘In America, you work until you’ve finished. In France you finish when you’re supposed to, so you have your evening. It’s very civilised.’
No doubt he hopes The Reunion will rejuvenate his career. ‘The murdermystery speaks for itself, who doesn’t love one of those?’ Ioan says.
‘Then you have the psychological aspect of how the truth will always find a way to catch up with you.’
- The Reunion, full series from Thursday, ITVX.
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