Dates

Series one, episode one
David’s a straight-talking northerner, Mia a too-cool-for-school Londoner: a match made in hell, surely? The excellence in Bryan ‘Skins’ Elsley’s script (as is indeed the case with most of the nine instalments in this run of short two-handers) lies in the way it wrongfoots us as much as it does the characters themselves.

Will Mellor and Oona Chaplin play the pauses of a first date beautifully, as the initial fireworks fizzle out into resentful silence. But then, unexpectedly, this combination of wounded integrity and brittle passive-aggression begins to gel and, if even if we don’t exactly root for them, our interest in their fates is certainly piqued. A smart idea, cleverly executed. Chaplin will be back as Mia at 10pm on Wednesday…