BAFTA winning actress Francesca Annis (Cranford, Jane Eyre, Reckless) stars in ITV1’s new two-part drama, The Little House, alongside renowned film, stage and television actors Tim Pigott-Smith (Alice in Wonderland, ENRON, Foyle’s War), Rupert Evans (Emma, The Palace, Hellboy) and rising star Lucy Griffiths (U Be Dead, Collision, Robin Hood).

Psychological thriller

This compelling thriller, which explores the psychological power struggles within one family, has been adapted for television by Ed Whitmore (Identity, Waking the Dead, He Kills Coppers) from Philippa Gregory’s best selling novel.

The drama follows the story of Ruth (Griffiths), who is married to career minded Patrick (Evans) and is pushed towards the limits of her own sanity when she becomes entangled in the lives of her wealthy but interfering in-laws Elizabeth (Annis) and Frederick (Pigott-Smith).

After falling unexpectedly pregnant, Ruth finds herself swept along on a tide of apparently well-intentioned family gestures which leave the previously independent school teacher detached from her former city life and living in ‘the little house’ at the end of her in-laws’ driveway.

The caesarean birth is traumatic and Ruth struggles to bond with her demanding baby son. Her mother-in-law is quick to intervene and is always on hand with expert support. However there’s a fine line between help and losing control and within months Ruth realises she’s completely isolated, living in a house she never wanted with a baby she hadn't planned to have. As she struggles with postpartum psychosis and unresolved feelings about her mother’s suicide, an all consuming fear grips Ruth that her mother-in-law is unnaturally obsessed with her grandson.

Throughout the drama, Elizabeth’s complex relationship with Ruth is subtly developed as they both try and take control of their connected lives until, inevitably, and very dramatically, they reach a point of no return. Is Elizabeth playing mind games with Ruth? Could she really be manipulating events against her daughter in-law? Or is Ruth hysterically distorting things in her own mind?

ITV series The Little House starring Francesca Annis

Paychological thriller of relationships within a family

Starring Francesca Annis, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Evans and Lucy Griffiths

Photograph of Lucy Griffiths as Ruth for ITV’s drama The Little House

Photograph of Lucy Griffiths from ITV's psycological drama The Little House