MY SECRET sister
A GRIEVING DAUGHTER discovers her dad led a double life in a new comedy
The Other One
Fri, BBC1 HD, 9pm (times vary)
THE DEATH OF a loved one might not be the most obvious starting point for a comedy, but this new sevenpart series from writers Holly Walsh and Pippa Brown finds space for gags amid the grieving.
Originally a pilot for BBC2 back in 2017, The Other One follows Catherine Walcott (The Windsors’
Ellie White), whose father, Colin, dies unexpectedly. However, Catherine’s grieving becomes complicated when she and her mother, Tess, learn that Colin had a mistress, Marilyn, and another daughter – also called Catherine.
As unlikely as this might sound, it was inspired by real life…
DOUBLE TROUBLE
‘My friend told me a story about how this happened to a friend of their parents in the 1970s,’ says Walsh, who has also written Motherland.
‘He had two families and had called the children the same names to avoid any confusion. I thought it was such a brilliant story. Weirdly, since the pilot went out, people have come up to me and said, “Oh yeah, that happened to my mate.” It seems more common than you might think.’
‘When we were looking at locations, one of the homeowners said it had happened to them, too,’ recalls Brown. ‘That felt way too close to home, so we couldn’t use their house!’
While Cathy is reluctant at first to get any more involved with her new half-sister than necessary, she develops a new perspective on life thanks to Cat (Misfits and
Catastrophe’s Lauren Socha). ‘Cathy has a fiancé but she is someone who clearly struggles with having close friends and letting people
into her life,’ says White. ‘She’s quite tightly wound and neurotic, and she doesn’t really know what to do with Cat because she’s so in her face – but Cat is also lovely and kind, and opens up a different side of Cathy.’
COMEDY OF ERRORS
‘Cat has a heart of gold,’ adds Socha. ‘I think she must have felt second best for a lot of her life as Colin was here, there and everywhere, and only made himself present as and when he wanted. Personally, if it was real life, I’d feel quite jealous and resentful of my sister if she got the pony and the beautiful home.’
Rebecca Front stars as widowed Tess, who’s left feeling hurt and humiliated by the revelation that her seemingly perfect marriage was a sham. In a bid to regain control of her life, she throws herself into the world of dating apps with gusto.
‘She needs to be reassured that she’s still got it going on,’ says Front. ‘She’s an emotional mess, but she thinks she’s holding it together – which was huge fun to play.’
Meanwhile, Marilyn the mistress (Siobhan Finneran), who was aware of Colin’s other family but kept her distance, is now keen to get to know Cathy and Tess to find out what the other half of Colin’s life was like.
‘She hasn’t been dealt the double blow that Tess has been – losing the love of her life and discovering he’s been cheating on her for 30 years,’ says Finneran. ‘There’s obviously 30 years of guilt and all that goes with it, but Marilyn also has a kind of fascination and a genuine desire to meet this woman who Colin loved and spent his life with.’
Although The Other One is undoubtedly a comedy, the series is unafraid to address the genuine hurt experienced as the characters process their bereavement and their complicated feelings about Colin.
‘You can only really play the truth of it,’ says Front. ‘You can’t fake it and do a comedy version because it won’t communicate properly, so you have to trust the writing has enough weight – and it has in this.’
‘Holly and I tried to look at what it would be like to be in Cathy’s position,’ adds Brown, who also penned Psychobitches. ‘Your dad’s died, which is traumatic, and then suddenly you’ve got this other revelation to unpack and process.
‘We were trying to find the heart of that, but also show how surreal and confusing it is as well. You can’t help but laugh at some of the situations – but we never veer away from truth and honesty.’