As well as giving us sexy undies and 'marital aids', ITV's new drama Brief Encounters served up plenty of fun... and lots of high drama too!
Brief Encounters debuted on ITV on Monday night and we already think it's going to be our favourite drama of the summer.
The six-part series – telling the story of four women who become party hostesses for sexy underwear firm Ann Summers – had it all. It was laugh-out-loud funny, had genuine warmth, and then of course there were the sexy undies and, ahem, marital aids! (Yep, we're still chuckling over 'The Stallion').
Brief Encounters also had a cracking Eighties' soundtrack (Vienna by Ultravox, anyone?) and plenty of shocks, not least main protagonist Steph (Peaky Blinders' Sophie Rundle) finding husband Terry (Happy Valley’s Karl Davies) having it away with his friend’s missus!
But it turned out Steph wasn't the only one to have a bombshell dropped on her in the opening episode.
Steph’s mate, no-nonsense mum-of-four, Nita, was having a whale of a time at Steph's first Ann Summer’s party round at posh Pauline's (perfectly played by Downton Abbey's Penelope Wilton, what would Isobel Crawley say?), when she collapsed. Rushed to hospital, Nita soon discovered she was pregnant!
"Nita’s already got four kids aged 15, eight, six and nine months and, while she loves her children and loves being a mother, this news certainly throws a spanner in the works because, now she’s started working for Ann Summers, she’s seen other things that she can be doing with her life,” revealed former Coronation Street star Angela Griffin, who plays her.
In next week's episode of Brief Encounters, Nita’s got some serious thinking to do…
“Nita and her husband Kieren (Holby City's Don Gilet) are solid as a rock, so she doesn’t necessarily think the grass is greener on the other side, she just struggles with the idea that she’s going to have to go through another pregnancy and have another baby, which is another two years of her life before she gets back to where she is now," said Angela. "Plus, what do you do in 1982, when a new baby comes along and you can't afford the four kids you’ve got?
"This news is the trigger for Nita’s life not being as rosy as it was before. She’s got some huge decisions to make.”
Brief Encounters continues next Monday at 9pm on ITV.
Sophie Rundle on filming with 'marital aids' in Brief Encounters (VIDEO)
