Unfaithful hearts
A holiday in Malta is beset by ADULTERY AND LIES in a new four-part thriller
DRAMA The Holiday
Tuesday-friday, Channel 5 HD, 9pm
AFTER PLAYING A grieving mother in The Drowning last year, Jill Halfpenny portrays another woman in anguish in brand-new Channel 5 thriller The Holiday.
The former Waterloo Road star plays police detective Kate, who arrives in Malta for a week of fun in the sun with family and friends. But the trip turns into a nightmare when she discovers her husband Sean (Killing Eve’s Owen Mcdonnell) is having an affair.
To make matters worse, Kate realises that Sean’s illicit lover is one of her three old friends who are sharing a luxury villa with the couple and their kids. But which one?
MYSTERY LOVER
‘Kate’s got a lovely family and she loves her husband,’ explains Halfpenny. ‘I think she feels a bit smug about the fact that she’s got the best marriage in her group of her friends. When they arrive at the villa, she knows something is up, but at first she’s not suspicious or worried.’
But that contentment is destroyed as Kate makes her shocking discovery just a few hours into her holiday – when she finds some revealing text messages on Sean’s phone.
‘It totally spins her out,’ says Halfpenny, 46. ‘Kate’s not capable of confronting her husband straight away or having an honest conversation with a friend. She’s a detective, so she uses those skills to look around and collect information before going forward.’
Based on the novel by TM Logan, the drama plays out over four nights this week as Kate tries to work out who’s been sleeping with her husband.
Is Sean’s mystery lover Rowan, whose marriage to husband
Russ seems to have hit a rocky
patch? Is it Jenny, who had a brief fling with Sean before he got together with Kate?
Or could it be Izzy? She turns up with the news that she’s in a new but ‘complicated’ relationship with someone. But might that ‘someone’ be Sean?
Meanwhile, as more secrets and lies are gradually revealed within the group, it leads to a terrifying climax with one of the party seemingly prepared to kill to stop the truth from coming out…
‘You’re constantly thinking about every single character and wondering, “Is it her?” or, “Is it him?”’ says Halfpenny.
‘Nothing is what it seems. When I read the script, I enjoyed pointing the finger at different people – and getting it completely wrong!’