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Plenty of people who live in cities will relate to the concept of not having a clue who your neighbour is. You live your lives separated by just a wall for years, or even decades, but you might never know anything about the person who lives right next to you apart from what they wear to put the bins out.

The reality is that life can be lonely, and sometimes the community and love you need is right next to you, in the last place you think you’d find it as Sam and Anna discover in new ITVX comedy-drama Significant Other.

When Anna, played by The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson, and Sam, played by Home’s Youssef Kerkour, first meet, it’s in the most unlikely and tragic of situations.

“We see my character, Sam, wanting to kill himself in the beginning,” explains Kerkour.

“There’s a knock at the door and his neighbour’s having a heart attack and bang! That’s the introduction that they both have to each other.

“From that blossoms a friendship, a romance will they, won’t they? The ambiguity is what’s very exciting about it.” works at home and lives quite a solitary life.

She’s been involved with a married man for about five years. Then three years ago she ended it and walked away. She lost both parents quite young, so she’s somebody who has found herself a bit adrift and more alone than perhaps she expected to be in life.

But she’s got a lot going for her she likes her job, and she likes her own company.

YK: Sam is somebody who on the surface would appear to be having a midlife crisis, but it’s a bit more complex than that. He’s somebody who wants to reclaim his lost youth, but who doesn’t have the strength of character or generosity to stop at the age that he’s aiming for. So, he continues to regress to an age that is a lot more juvenile and needy than he thinks. He’s left his wife and children because he wants to shake things up and he wants to feel that feeling that he remembers.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GOING TO LOVE SIGNIFICANT OTHER?

KP: This feels like an original love story. Everybody loves a love story, but this feels like one that hasn’t been told. It’s also very good to see older love. Obviously, I’m not that old but people who are in their mid forties often come with damage. But there’s a different type of love that can happen at that age and one that’s very interesting and more interesting than the young stuff.

Significant Other is available on ITVX from Thursday.