The plot of this trouble-in-suburbia thriller might be flimsy – but who cares when there’s so much sexual tension between our flirtatious foursome?
There are two extraordinary features to note about Channel 4’s new six-part drama series The Couple Next Door, which examines the combustible effects of a hot, swinging couple on a pair of conservative young things who move in next door. The first is that it succeeds in being sexy rather than cringemaking. This is vanishingly rare and comes courtesy of a clever, layered script that ties each of the narrative strands together perfectly and takes enough time to build every relationship within the foursome to allow what unfolds to feel plausible. Writer David Allison understands that even people destined to climb into bed with each other are capable of thinking and talking about other things while lust brews in the background, and cracking a few jokes along the way. I don’t know if this was present in the Dutch series New Neighbours, on which this is based, and Allison had the sense to keep it intact or if it’s all his own work but it is fantastically well done. There should be a special annual award for any creation that manages to deliver convincing spousal banter like Allison does here.
The second extraordinary point is the casting of Hugh Dennis as a stalker. Alan (Dennis) is obsessed with Becka, the more free-spirited of the hot swingers (played by Jessica de Gouw, coupling her innate credibility as a hot swinger with a nuanced portrait of a woman making the best of a life she never expected and which will soon take a turn for the worse). And it turns out that Dennis, after decades of providing gentle humour in roles playing on his unthreatening affability in the likes of Outnumbered and Not Going Out, is the perfect creep. Alan starts off as what you might call a bit of a saddo, but as his circumstances change and appetites grow, we watch with bated breath as his behaviour escalates and his mood darkens. It would be a brilliant performance even if its purveyor were not so unexpected, but the casting adds an extra touch of uncanniness to the whole.
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