Adultery (ITV)
Forget the 8am phone lottery. Never struggle to book a doctor’s appointment again. Just go to the surgery and plant a Smacker Fool on the GP’s lips.
It worked for Beth (Romola Garai) not once but twice in adultery.
The first time, her flimsy excuse for a trip was to return the bicycle helmet of the flamboyant Doctor Tom after he had knocked it off his bike.
On that occasion, she didn’t actually taunt him – she just gave him a smoldering gaze that left him in no doubt that she wanted to tear off his clothes.
But on his second visit, finding him once again alone in his consulting room, he lost no time in throwing an angry face. After that, they were doing it at every possible opportunity: in the car, in her friend’s bed, even in the deserted soft play area of the town farm (obviously, they were supposed to be using the petting area).
Neil (Matthew McNulty), Beth (Romola Garai), Tom (Dominic Cooper) and Hannah (Shelley Conn)
We can’t blame Beth. She is married to Neil (Matthew McNulty), a scruffy bearded boor with a penchant for violence, whose idea of romantic conversation is to bang on her car window when she comes home from work and shout that he’s ‘off to snooker’.
Builder Neil is to blame for Beth’s dreams of becoming a fitness trainer being dashed: he expects her to be at home preparing her tea, not running a business.
And he is awaiting trial for a violent assault, a problem he made worse by breaking into his victim’s shop and trying to intimidate him into withdrawing the charges.
Beth would be far better off without him – the only mystery is why he didn’t leave her long ago.
Lover Tom (Dominic Cooper) has more of a moral dilemma. He and wife Hannah (Shelley Coen) were university lovers, and she suffers from long-term mental illness following family trauma that has not yet been explained.
If she finds out he’s cheating on her, Hannah could be devastated… and she’s sure to find out, as she obsessively tracks him through the phone app.
Forget the 8am phone lottery. Never struggle to book a doctor’s appointment again. Just go to the surgery and plant a Smacker Fool on the GP’s lips. Beth (Garai) and Tom (Cooper)
Writer Danny Brocklehurst, who also created Ten Pound Poms, has devised a series of clever complications to ensure that the debauchery does not degenerate into triviality.
Both married couples are parents to teenagers, Jess and Ollie, who are head over heels in love despite the impending GCSEs in their relationship.
An extra dimension is added by a subtext about grief, and the strange things it can make us do. Beth’s best friend has died, and she finds herself on the verge of tears more often than she realizes.
However, what I am most concerned about is his driving. Not only did she run over Tom (fortunately, he was finding it quite amusing to bounce off her windscreen) but she closed her eyes at the wheel while she sang on the stereo.
Keep doing this, and he’ll need more than just a GP appointment.