Women On The Verge

RTE Player, until November 10, season 1, episode 1 Anything with Sharon Horgan’s name attached now comes with considerable expectation — that it will be funny, relatable, and definitely not for the squeamish.

Women On The Verge, written by Horgan with Lorna Martin, begins with a cringey lunchtime sex scene in a pub toilet between two people who clearly are not in a relationship with each other — indeed, he takes a phone call halfway through from the person he equally clearly is in a relationship with. And yet the girl, rather than slamming out of the pub loo, waits for him to finish discussing ‘bevelled’ edges. That’s Laura (Kerry Condon).

Then there’s Katie (Nina Sosanya), legs up in stirrups for a needlessly humiliating spot of artificial insemination in order to provide a sibling for her daughter, and finally Alison (Eileen Walsh), who has decided to get back with the ex, on the basis — as she tells Katie and Laura — that she broke up because “I was young and idealistic. I’ve realised it’s perfectly normal to hate your partner and wish they were dead most of the time”.

Set in Dublin, this is a kind of Bridget Jones meets Sex In The City. The pity is that Horgan (left) isn’t — so far — in it more. She appears towards the end of the first episode as a mysterious therapist, leading me to hope there will be far more of her in upcoming episodes.