If you’re not already watching Cheaters, a new BBC Three sitcom directed by Oliver Lyttelton, firstly, talk to yourself, and secondly, watch Cheaters, stat!
Once you start you just can’t stop, due in part to the more styled episode structure. There are 18 of these, each divided into 10-minute blocks.
“You just want to move on,” Joshua McGuire, who stars in the sitcom, told RadioTimes.com. “It has something to do with the psychology of a 10-minute episode where you don’t just watch one.”
McGuire is one of four main actors, Josh, who meets Susan Wokoma’s fola in Finland. She is a travel writer who is there for work while traveling alone after learning that his longtime girlfriend Esther (Callie Cooke) has slept with a colleague.
They both end up at a hotel bar after their return flight to London is cancelled, where they drink their bodyweight in alcohol before enjoying a night of very messy – and very good – sex.
An intimacy coordinator was drafted in to oversee these scenes, which is largely standard today. The hiring of cheaters has a background in Fight choreography, according to McGuire, which makes a lot of sense given the chaos of Josh and Fola’s first romp.
“I’ve only done one other sex scene in my career and it was like, ‘Let’s go,'” Wokoma said. “It was pretty embarrassing. And I can’t believe that was the norm, because actually, a choreography, or at least a few discussions beforehand, actually makes you feel braver. It made me braver. I had lost a lot of inhibitions in the process at certain points. It’s really safe and everyone has good intentions, not weird.
Returning to the capital after parting ways at the airport, Josh and Fola get a blow in the gut to discover they’re neighbors, with the latter and her hunk of husband Zack (Jack Fox) – yes, her is a married woman – moved in right across the street.
But what happened in Finland doesn’t stay in Finland.
Fola and Josh continue to be attracted to each other, stealing kisses and enjoying passionate sex whenever they can tear themselves away from their respective lives. But despite their duplicity, you don’t hate the couple, not even the slightest bit, which is a surprising development and adds a much-needed nuance to discussions of what it means to be unfaithful.
“I can pretty much say, ‘cheating is bad,’ and it is,” Wokoma said. “People get hurt. But what I love is that Oli has created something non-judgmental. There are many reasons why people are not happy and they cheat. I often check [Josh’s girlfriend] Esther and I really feel for her. One of my really close friends got married [to a man] for so long, but she’s always had a weird side. How do you explore this while also being married to a man you love immensely?
“It’s all very complex, and I’m glad we’re looking at intimacy this way, rather than being black and white with it.”
Rather than providing a comprehensive answer, Cheater raises a variety of questions and leaves viewers to draw their own conclusions.
McGuire added, “Oli has acknowledged that two things can exist simultaneously, which is that what Josh and Fola are doing is wrong — or you can debate it because they both have their reasons.”
Josh initially assumes that Fola and Zack’s sex life is in full swing, but he’s badly mistaken, and what ensues from this strand of the story caught Wokoma completely off guard.
“It takes quite a turn, which shocked me, and I’m pretty much non-shockable,” she admitted.
Viewers will no doubt have the same reaction.
“But while they’re unfaithful, there’s a romance between them,” McGuire said. “It’s not just sex. It’s not just a dirty thing. There’s a real tenderness between them, which I find really, really interesting.”
On the question of whether Cheaters might return for Season 2, McGuire said: “I definitely think where we’re going, because you have these four characters, there’s endless exploration of what I think Oli can do. I definitely think there is room to move forward in the future.”
Wokoma added, “This is us always the first to be asked and the last to know. I’m going to put my heart on the line and say absolutely, I really hope there is. The main thing is that it is a completely new format. I think there’s really only one other show, State of the Union [starring Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd]it has very short episodes, so I understand it’s a bit risky, but I hope so.”
Cheater can now be streamed on iPlayer. Check out more of our drama coverage or visit our TV guide to see what’s on tonight.
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