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A young, single mum with a part-time job in a psychiatrist’s office begins an affair with her boss while developing a close friendship with his wife.

It was inevitable that Sarah Pinborough’s bestselling 2017 thriller wound be snapped up for a movie or TV adaptation, with Netflix grabbing the rights and streaming a six-part series that has ‘box set binge’ written all over it – its viewers likely to be as shocked as the unsuspecting readers have been by that ending.

And just to be clear, in this review I’ll be steering clear from anything that might offer up any clues as to the denouement. Why should anyone else get an easier ride? It’s all about the journey, and what a ride it is.

Essentially a three-hander, this triangle follows the relationship between young mum Louise (Simona Brown, The Night Manager), her boss David (Tom Bateman, Jekyll and Hyde) and his wife Adele (Eve Hewson, Robin Hood). Louise strikes up a conversation with a guy at a bar and then discovers that he’s her new boss. He’s new to the area, and his wife strikes up a friendship with Louise, unaware of the passion that’s growing at work.

It’s a simple premise but things get complicated very quickly as Louise struggles to prioritise where her true loyalties lie. All three leads are excellent, with Eve Hewson particularly unnerving in a role which feels decidedly off, and for good reasons. We put it down to her mental health, with David’s overbearing control of her not helping, but genuinely, we know nothing.

I have to be honest, I wasn’t that gripped by the opening instalments, mainly because it felt like a regular drama about infidelity, albeit well-played. It’s only at episode 4 that the tension shifts up a gear, and then we’re off. By the time you’re in the last half of episode six, you’re a world away from that relationship drama set in a North London surgery.

Verdict: Whether or not you’ve read the book, invest five hours in what’s sure to be water cooler TV (if we were allowed to go into offices to stand by water coolers!). Find out the secrets before someone else ruins it for you. 8/10

Nick Joy

Watch for our interviews with director Erik Richter Strand, original author Sarah Pinborough and adaptor/producer Steve Lightfoot coming very soon