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“There’s a psychological equation. It says that attraction, plus an obstacle, equals excitement. But what happens if the attraction is too strong; the obstacles are too great?”
If the name alone hadn’t tipped you off, this question, posed by a northern-accented Romola Garai in the opening of ITV’s new sexy six-part drama, Adultery, gives a pretty good idea of what’s to come.
Garai plays Beth, a harried, married mum of two and part-time zumba teacher who’s going through a rocky patch after the death of a friend. Minutes into episode one, her world literally collides with Tom (Dominic Cooper), a charmed, middle-class GP who’s also married with kids, when she knocks him off his bike with her car. One thing, as they say, leads to another…
Infidelity is hardly unfamiliar telly terrain. This series follows in the multitude of footsteps that went before it: The Affair, Scandal, Doctor Foster, The Good Wife, The Betrayal, to skim just a few off the top of the considerable iceberg. Any drama worth its salt these days will likely throw in an affair at some point, even if it’s a B-plot device helping chivvy the story along rather than being dished up as the main event.
Perhaps it’s indicative of the fact that we’re a sex-obsessed species of dreadful gossips. Whatever the reason behind the fascination, this kind of show, covering nothing in the way of new ground, lives and dies by the chemistry of its leads. Fortunately, here the casting team absolutely understood the assignment.
Garai and Cooper bring far more than simply good looks and star power to illicit proceedings (though these certainly help); they manage to create an instant, natural warmth that’s both believable and familiar to anyone who’s ever felt that punch-to-the-solar-plexus connection with another person within seconds of meeting.
This palpable, mutual attraction has more substance than merely sexual, with an innate understanding and easy affection behind all that tortured yearning. It’s this depth of feeling that makes the speed at which both parties decide to press the f***-it button and risk blowing up their entire lives somewhat plausible.
To be honest, I would happily watch Garai do just about anything – there’s something so inherently lovely about her, isn’t there? – but she’s in her element when pining, those big, doe eyes following Tom around like a lovestruck mooncalf. Cooper, meanwhile, hits Aidan Turner-levels of smouldering intensity, barely able to rip his eyes away from Beth whenever they’re in the same room.
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The attraction, then, is clear – and so are the obstacles. Namely, the fact that Tom and Beth are married to other people, with the added complication that their teenage kids are in a romantic relationship themselves.
The show is more sophisticated and nuanced than many that have gone before it in terms of presenting the humanity of everyone involved, thanks to smart writing from Bafta winner Danny Brocklehurst and a stellar ensemble cast. (Mercifully, the former has eschewed the “jump the shark” style of his many Harlan Coben adaptations here in favour of a more naturalistic style.)
Neither Tom nor Beth are in loveless marriages, per se, just ones that have hit their own respective tricky patches; neither his wife, Hannah (Shelley Conn), nor her husband, Neil (Matthew McNulty), are cartoon villains, cardboard cut-out collateral damage or blameless saints, but rather complex, flawed, living, breathing human beings.
It makes the pathos feel all the more real as the drama unfolds, holding the tension of the uncomfortable truth that cheating doesn’t automatically make someone a monster without shying away from its potentially devastating consequences.
“We’re all one moment away from our lives disintegrating,” says Hannah to her therapist at one point, in what could either be viewed as a self-fulfilling prophecy, given the extreme anxiety and intrusive thoughts that have strained her marriage in recent years, or a burst of pure prescience.
Like with all tales of forbidden love, it seems inevitable that Tom and Beth will, at some point, get found out. The only question is when and how the wheels will come off. But safe to say, attraction, plus an obstacle, is unlikely to equal happily ever after…