PBS’ Patience is based on the French series Astrid et Raphaëlle. Both shows center an autistic woman who works in a police department and strikes up an unexpected partnership with a detective who spots their keen eye for noticing patterns others missed in investigations.
Astrid et Raphaëlle debuted in 2020 and is still ongoing, and Patience makes some key tweaks with its adaptation. The most important change is the fact that the star of Patience, Ella Maisy Purvis, is autistic herself, whereas Astrid star Sara Mortensen is not. Purvis tells TV Insider that she didn’t watch Astrid et Raphaëlle prior to filming Patience Season 1.
“I didn’t watch it, and I didn’t know about it before,” she shares. “I looked it up obviously, and it’s quite funny because it is just French me and Laura [Fraser, who costars as DI Bea Metcalf]. But no, I didn’t watch it.”
Purvis avoided watching the original inspiration for her series because she didn’t want to unintentionally influence her performance.
“I think I knew if I watched it, I’d then not be able to shake that idea from my head,” Purvis explains. “And we wanted to create something that wasn’t like a carbon copy as much as it follows a very similar kind of structure, didn’t want to fall into that. I don’t want to be influenced by her portrayal of that character.” Nor should she. While Patience is based on Astrid, there would be no point in making a new adaptation if they were to just recreate what’s already been done.
Because of Astrid, however, there was “a blueprint for this character and a very specific blueprint when I read the scripts,” Purvis admits, but being neurodivergent was helpful in creating their Patience. “My input mainly just came day-to-day things,” the actor adds, as well as in talks about Patience’s upcoming romantic relationship (get an exclusive sneak peek at the scene where she’s asked on a date here before the episode airs on July 13).
“There was a big conversation on her relationship with Elliot [Tom Lewis],” Purvis says, implying that there were questions on set about whether Patience should have a romantic arc. “She’s a grown woman, so why wouldn’t she then pursue that?”
At the end of the day, Purvis doesn’t see a ton of similarities between her and her character, but still finds her deeply relatable. “I would say that I’m very, very different from her and very, very similar,” she says. “It’s obviously very black and white for me, but we share a lot of the same habits. I am very on time. I’m very early, and I think I have that same kind of obsession and passion for things, but I love being around people and talking and engaging and I’m really, really chatty. And if she’s not spoken to, she won’t speak, whereas I’ll just speak.”
Patience Season 1 is nearly complete on PBS. Catch the penultimate episode of the season this Sunday, July 13, on PBS. Astrid et Raphaëlle episodes can currently be streamed on PBS.org in the U.S. and on PBS’ Prime Video channel.
Patience, Sundays, 8/7c, PBS