THREE’S A CROWD
OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN, JAMES MCARDLE AND JOANNA VANDERHAM STAR IN THE FIRST OF TWO LOVE STORIES, 60 YEARS APART…
An enigmatic painting and a country cottage provide the link between two love stories spanning 60 years in this new two-part drama. The first story begins in 1944, where Captain Michael Berryman is serving in Italy during the Second World War, and war artist Thomas March is assigned to his unit. The two men grow close, and the attraction between them is obvious – but when the war ends, Michael has to return home to his life in London with his fiancée Flora.
“Michael is mathematical in his thinking and chooses to conform in life,” explains Oliver Jackson-cohen, who plays him. “But as a result, he is forever conflicted because the man he loves – Thomas – keeps coming back into his life over the course of 10 years. It creates chaos for Michael and his family. He chooses to continue on this life that’s a lie, and the ripple effects are dramatic.”
“It devastates Thomas’ whole life, because Michael is the only man that he’s ever really properly loved,” adds James Mcardle, who plays Thomas. “Thomas is politically outrageous for his time, and he’s unafraid. I think that’s what Michael falls in love with, but also what he’s terrified of.”
Michael ends up living a double life, presenting in public the image of a perfect family man with a loving wife who soon becomes pregnant – but he’s unable to keep Thomas out of his thoughts. It’s only a matter of time before things start to unravel – and when Flora discovers some letters that Thomas wrote to Michael, she realises the truth about her husband…
“There’s a thing that a lot of people do where all of these things are going on under the surface and they just sort of swallow it down, and Flora is the epitome of that,” explains Joanna Vanderham, who plays her. “She doesn’t deal with things and just focuses on moving forwards, and in that way everything is ‘fine’ – and what we see is how much keeping everything bottled up costs her. Ultimately, I think that this story is about three people who are very lonely, because no one can be with who they want to be with.”
The repercussions of this love triangle will be explored next week, in a story set in 2017 featuring an older Flora (played by Vanessa Redgrave) and her grandson Adam’s own struggles with his sexuality – in a time where much of the stigma that kept Thomas and Michael apart is gone, but shame still haunts them both. And while this story is set amid the prejudices and restrictive laws of the 1940s, the cast say it’s a timely reminder of the fact that the fight isn’t over yet.
“When this was announced, I saw it reported as ‘BBC commissions gay drama’,” recalls James. “But this isn’t a ‘gay drama’, it’s a universal love story. I’ve never seen ‘BBC commissions Poldark, heterosexual drama’! All the classic love stories are conditioned by the social circumstances of their time – like Michael and Thomas’ is.”
THOMAS IS OUTRAGEOUS FOR HIS TIME, AND HE’S UNAFRAID” JAMES