Q&A with writer David Allison

What are the differences between series one and series two?

The first series was about two couples that collided with each other– a square. Whereas this is more two love triangles with Charlotte and Jacob within those triangles, one with Mia and one with Leo. So, the dynamic is really different. The other thing is this is about characters who are a little bit older. They’re in their forties – it’s about a mid-life crisis and there’s different things going on in those relationships as well. 

How does the hospital setting contribute to the drama and high-stakes atmosphere of the show?

We have a really important main location which is a hospital, where three of the characters work – Charlotte, Jacob and Mia and Leo’s family are also helping to build a new wing, so they’re all tied into this world. What’s attractive about that is it’s a very high-stakes place, it’s dramatic, it’s very life and death, there’s a lot of drama naturally in that place and it gives us a nice new precinct for the audience to enjoy as well. 

How did you find writing a medical show? 

We wanted to make sure we got this right. So we’ve done extensive research, with heart surgeons, with anaesthetists, we’ve had amazing experts give their time and expertise to us. We’ve got a heart surgeon on set during filming, we’ve gone line by line through the whole script to make sure it feels real. The cast have put their scrubs on and been part of an operation and they’ve all been really excited by that. 

How did the art department manage to create the magical autumnal look for series two?

Series two is set in the autumn heading towards winter. Dealing with snow on the cul-de-sac causes huge continuity problems when you’re filming four different episodes in one day. Everyone has been so cheerful and amazing about it.

It was very important we thought to make it look autumnal and we realised the shoot was going to be maybe slightly too late. We were absolutely right; the leaves had fallen off. So what you will see on screen – beautiful red, yellow and green leaves, all over the trees, making it look magical and autumnal in the most fantastic way. And to achieve that, it took the art department four days to hang those leaves on the trees. So please enjoy every leaf.

How would you summarise series two? 

Essentially the story of series two involves Charlotte and Jacob, who seem to have this perfect marriage – but into that comes Mia, this mysterious nurse from Norway, who is almost overly friendly, very in your face, quite full on and flirtatious and immediately seems to strike up this flirtation with both Charlotte and Jacob in different ways. At the same time, Charlotte’s old flame Leo is back because his father is dying and Jacob immediately clearly feels threatened by this person from the past. And I suppose it’s about this marriage being stress-tested in a way it never has been before by these two different antagonists. I don’t want to give anything away but things get pretty intimate and they get pretty explosive pretty quickly. 

Regarding Leo and Charlotte, clearly there was huge unfinished business in this relationship and there’s a point where Charlotte could have chosen Leo or Jacob and she chose Jacob. When Leo comes back whilst this is all happening with her marriage, you suddenly find herself wondering did I make the right choice? Should I have gone with this person instead. 

Why was it important for Alan to have a redemption arc in this series? 

In terms of bringing Alan back, I really felt like we had unfinished business with him. Partly Hugh is an amazing actor…. and I know he enjoyed playing the character – he’s said people come up to him in the street and say we love how creepy you are…. And we thought, is there something interesting we can do here? We’re picking up at his absolute lowest ebb and where might we be able to take him in the second series. So he does provide a kind of anchor to the street, he’s quite nosy, he wants to get involved in other people’s lives, so naturally he tends to insert himself into stories. 

Is it a coincidence that they are heart surgeons in this love story?

I think the reason I wanted Charlotte to be a heart surgeon – I mean there’s an obvious metaphor about love there but actually what’s really interesting about heart surgeons is they’re kind of rock stars of hospitals. It’s a big job and they tend to have quite big egos. Very important people. It gives her a really interesting status within the hospital as well. It’s also an incredibly high-pressure job and you’re under enormous amounts of stress and you literally hold someone’s life in your hands. And that is also true of an anaesthetist. I think it’s really interesting that an anaesthetist’s job is literally to turn people on and off again. So, there’s something going on for both of them that... they’ve both got this interesting power dynamic. 

Why should people watch series two? 

I think because we’ve made something that is sexier, bigger and bolder than the first series. I think we’ve got this incredible crime story in the hospital – it’s really dark and twisted and we’ve got this unbelievable new cast and you’re going to love watching sparks fly between them. 

What are the key themes of the series? 

One is about mid-life and about mid-life crises. About the moment where you suddenly look around and think ‘is this my life?’, which I think almost everyone goes through, regardless of their gender or if they’re in a long-term relationship. Another big theme is about coming to terms with your needs changing as you get older - and that might involve a kink or a different sexual desire - and that sometimes long-term heterosexual relationships are a difficult place to explore those things, and perhaps we need to be more open about that. 

Finally, I think the other big theme is about power. About how relationships work and the power dynamic and the sexual power and the sexual dynamic as well. How somebody with a higher status can end up with a lower sexual power than someone with a lower status. So I think power and sex and all of that rich tapestry is what we’re trying to explore in the series.

In terms of the story, we took inspiration very, very loosely from a Danish series called Dopamine but we have had enormous creative freedom to develop it exactly the way we wanted and run in whatever direction we wanted to do, and hopefully that’s what we’ve done.