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There are cuter ways to meet. In a back garden in Belfast, Janet sits with a shotgun pointed at her chin. Looking up to the heavens, her finger on the trigger, she spots a face peering down. Scrambling over her wall and into her troubled life is Seamus, a plummy TV journalist fleeing local teens he has inadvertently provoked while on a shoot. He is a real-life deus ex machina, and to Janet’s mind something of an inconvenience. “Can a girl not kill herself in peace today?” she deadpans.
This absurd, bittersweet first interaction aptly sets the tone for The Lovers, a dark-humoured and tender-hearted new six-part romcom on Sky. Like Starstruck, it follows a burgeoning relationship between a public figure and an anonymous member of that public. But rather than focus on what might push them apart, the show revels in that rare, inexplicable magnetism that draws two very different people together and can change a life in a moment.
Their connection is immediate and effortless. For Seamus (Johnny Flynn), Janet’s “unapologetic” candour offers a release from the telegenic front that has become his actual personality. For Janet (Roisin Gallagher, a revelation), Seamus’s bumbling concern and affection allows her to rebuild her own self-worth.
The attraction may be irrepressible but sexual gratification is delayed, its practicalities discussed at length. A renowned political presenter, Seamus is unsure about escalating the flirtation. His girlfriend Frankie (Alice Eve) is back in London. She is a famous actress and a decent, trusting person — making things harder on Seamus, Janet and us viewers rooting for the infidelity.
Underpinning the show is a welcome sense of moral ambiguity and tonal variety. It finds humour in despair, giddy innocence in adultery and touches of joy and melancholy in unsentimental banter. Refreshingly too, it presents Belfast as an actual contemporary city rather than a monument to the Troubles. The Lovers, it seems, is no late-summer fling.
★★★★☆
On Sky Atlantic and Now from September 7 at 9pm
