The Other One
Rebecca Front and Siobhan Finneran on playing rivals in a modern family sitcom
THE OTHER ONE
NEW FRI / BBC1 / 9PM (TIMES VARY) / EP 1 of 7 / COMEDY
When Colin Walcott dies unexpectedly from a heart attack, his grieving wife, Tess, and his devoted daughter Catherine learn the big secret he had been keeping from them: the existence of his mistress, Marilyn, and another daughter of almost exactly the same age, also named Catherine…
BBC1’S new seven-part comedy The Other One – originally piloted on BBC2 back in 2017 – follows the fallout as Tess (played by Poldark and The Thick of It star Rebecca Front) attempts to rebuild her life, while Marilyn (Benidorm and Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran) is thrilled to finally have a chance to be part of the family she heard about but could never meet.
As for Cathy and Cat (The Windsors’ Ellie White and Misfits star Lauren Socha), they get a chance to experience sisterhood and compare notes about their childhoods.
Here, Rebecca, 56, and Siobhan, 54, tell TV Times more…
Tess is grieving at the start of the series. How does she deal with it? REBECCA: Tess is a very tightly wound woman, then this terrible thing is revealed to her and that is devastating. I don’t know who would deal with it well, but Tess does not – which makes it really fun to play. She just closes herself off more and she will not accept the reality that she’s been faced with. She just becomes an even more difficult woman – though she wouldn’t see it that way. I think she would believe she’s being utterly reasonable!
Marilyn, on the other hand, is a lot more open about her grief over Colin, isn’t she?
SIOBHAN: Yes, she is – I think that’s because she’s a very, very open human being. Also, she has been aware of Tess’ existence the entire time, so she’s not been dealt the double blow that Tess has: that she’s lost the love of her life and found out that he’s been cheating on her for 30 years.
Tess’ reaction is to sign up for as many dating apps as she can – how does that go? REBECCA: She just needs to be reassured that she’s still got it going on! She’s just an emotional mess at this stage, but she thinks she’s holding it together.
How does Marilyn feel when she finally meets Tess and Cathy? SIOBHAN: She’s delighted to meet Cathy. With Tess, obviously there’s 30 years of guilt there and all that goes with it, but she also wants to meet this woman who she knows Colin loved and spent his life with. I think there’s a kind of fascination there, a genuine desire to meet this other woman.
Tess and Marilyn are very different – what do you think Colin saw in each of them? REBECCA: That’s a really interesting question. I think you’d have to ask the man! With Tess, it was a genuine love match, but I suspect she also represents the lifestyle that he aspired to. She would have kept a good home and she would have been quite willing to subsume into his world and play the loving, adoring wife. If he’s the kind of guy who has a wandering eye, all the effort that Tess put in to making him happy would have become annoying to him, so he would have gone looking for someone who is more fun. Which is terrible, but I think that’s what was going on! SIOBHAN: Also, I think he was only with Marilyn for a few hours every week, and got exactly what he wanted from her. I don’t know a guy that would say no to that!
Finally, Marilyn’s outfits are fantastic, Siobhan! Did you enjoy wearing them? SIOBHAN: Yes, very much so – I took about 400 selfies every day!
All seven episodes of The Other One will be available on BBC iplayer after the first ep airs