LOVE BITES

Five tear-jerking short stories, a big-name cast – and no scripts. BBC1’S new drama series True Love promises emotional fireworks – and a masterclass in acting

The series may be called True Love, but some of its bigname stars found it truly terrifying to film. Dominic Savage’s heart-tugging BBC1 series about love and relationships has no script and no pre-set direction. Which probably meant no sleep for some of the actors the night before filming started.

‘It was unquestionably scary for those taking part,’ explains Dominic, a BAFTA winner for his direction of TV dramas When I Was 12 and Nice Girl. ‘Even those who are vastly experienced were taking a leap into the unknown. They were being asked to improvise an entire drama with not much to guide them apart from a few suggested areas from me that they needed to talk about during scenes.

‘The actors were brave because they knew it would be tough, and they wouldn’t necessarily be able to pull it off. Some of Britain’s best-known stars put quite a bit at stake when they agreed to do this.’

Among those taking the plunge in True Love were former Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Billie Piper, Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt, Call The Midwife’s Jenny Agutter, Jane Horrocks and Vicky McClure, who won the Best Actress BAFTA last year for her performance in Channel 4’s This Is England ’86. Each of their stories overlap during the five dramas, which unfold over consecutive nights this week and are all set in Dominic Savage’s home town, the seaside resort of Margate in Kent.

In the first of them, David Tennant plays Nick, whose happy family life with wife Ruth (Joanne Froggatt) and their two children is blown apart by the return of former lover Serena (Vicky McClure). In the second, Ashley Walters’s character Paul puts his marriage in jeopardy by falling for Stella (Jaime Winstone), a woman he spots at a bus stop. Billie Piper appears in the third film as a young teacher, Holly, who develops a crush on one of her female pupils. Jane Horrocks plays a woman in search of an escape from her empty marriage in the fourth drama, Sandra’s Story. And David Morrissey plays a divorced taxi driver, Adrian, who attempts to find love via a dating website in the final drama.

Vicky McClure believes viewers will be hooked on True Love because it deals with a subject that affects all of us. ‘Love is a universal theme, as is heartbreak, which happens in all of these stories,’ she says. ‘Most people I know have had their heart broken – I have – so lots of people will identify with what happens in the series.’