Stonehouse start date for new ITV1 drama with Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes

Stonehouse is the brand new drama coming to ITV1 in 2023 with a start date now confirmed!

The three-part series will tell the life and times of disgraced Labour minister John Stonehouse .

The MP for Walsall North left behind his loving wife Barbara and three young children as a shocked public and media presumed he had drowned or been eaten by sharks.

The drama comes from acclaimed writer John Preston with BAFTA award-winning and Emmy-nominated Matthew Macfadyen (Succession, Quiz) in the leading role and co-starring Keeley Hawes (Honour, It’s A Sin) as Stonehouse’s wife Barbara.

Stonehouse start date

Stonehouse will start on ITV1 on Monday, 2 January at 9PM.

The three-part series continues on Tuesday, 3 January and Wednesday, 4 January.

You’ll also be able to watch online on ITVX with all episodes available once the first airs on ITV1.

The drama will also star Emer Heatley (Showtrial) as Stonehouse’s mistress Sheila Buckley, Kevin R McNally (The Crown, Unforgotten) as Harold Wilson, Dorothy Atkinson (All Creatures Great and Small, Mum) as Betty Boothroyd and Igor Grabuzov (Voskresenskiy, No Looking Back).

Watch a first trailer below…

A full synopsis of the show shares: “Charismatic, oozing with charm and brimming with confidence, Stonehouse had impressed Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Labour stalwarts from an early stage in his parliamentary career. From a working-class background, he’d graduated from the London School of Economics, was in the RAF during the War and seemed the ideal candidate for a life in politics.

“As the drama unfolds, it becomes apparent his reputation as a devoted family man masked the truth, as he’d embarked on an extra marital affair with his secretary, Sheila Buckley, and acted as a spy for the Czech Secret Service in the 1960s.

“His complex financial status and relationships eventually took their toll, with Stonehouse deliberately stealing the identity of a recently deceased constituent. Stonehouse applied for a passport in the dead man’s name and began to weave an elaborate conspiracy, seeking a new life in Australia. But his plans soon turned sour as Stonehouse was arrested by Australian police who had been under the mistaken impression that he was the fugitive peer Lord Lucan.

“Brought back to the UK by Scotland Yard detectives, Stonehouse found that he was crucial to keeping the Labour government in power with its wafer-thin majority.”