Dangerous liaisons
Steamy Channel 4 drama The Couple Next Door is back and new stars Annabel Scholey and Sam Palladio are ready for action…
Euan Cherry/Getty Images
- Toby Earle
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ANNABEL SCHOLEY
...plays Charlotte
Last year, Annabel Scholey joined the Mile High Club in Rivals by breaking the sound barrier (and the soundproofing) in Concorde’s loo. This summer she shares an urgent cubicle quickie at a posh do in the sultry thriller The Couple Next Door. Is it becoming a habit?
“We joked about this when we were filming – ‘Oh, here she is again in the toilet.’ I really hope I’ve had my last encounter in a bathroom. I’ve done my fair share,” laughs the new co-lead of Channel 4’s hit drama. “It’s definitely not in my contract to have one of those scenes in the toilet, but this celebrates older women and that’s great. I’m 41 and it’s no longer the case that you’re sexually washed up at 25 or 30. Women don’t die at 40.”
Leo (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Jacob (Sam Palladio), Charlotte (Annabel Scholey) and Mia (Aggy K Adams). Channel 4
The first series of the sexually charged drama, set in an upmarket Leeds cul-de-sac, was a huge hit for Channel 4 and in the second series, Scholey plays surgeon Charlotte Roberts, one half of a respected medical couple whose work and home life are inextricably intertwined. The arrival of Mia (Aggy K Adams), a nurse who moves next door to Charlotte and her anaesthetist husband Jacob (Sam Palladio) and starts work at their hospital, ensures no inch of the couples’s life – and bodies – remains untouched.
It's quite a sexual part, so I needed to check with my husband if he was OK with that
Annabel Scholey
“I actually read for Evie, the part Eleanor Tomlinson played in series one,” reveals the Wakefield-born actor. “I really liked the script and the character. Then I read the second series and thought I’m like Charlotte in so many ways; not necessarily what she gets up to, but her type. She’s very focused, quite serious. We’re the same age and from the same place – it’s fairly perfect casting for me.
The Couple Next Door. Channel 4
“She’s a West Yorkshire girl and I haven’t played many of those because people don’t realise I’m from there. I wanted to be reclaimed by the North,” laughs the actor, who now lives on the border of Wiltshire and Somerset. “My parents, sister and nephew still live in Yorkshire, so I go there a lot.”
To prepare for filming, Scholey attended open-heart surgery, which left her “mind-blown”. To add to the pressure, a surgeon at that procedure was also a series adviser and even plays Charlotte’s resident during surgery, which Scholey describes as “terrifying.” That wasn’t the only aspect of the role that conjured up some trepidation.
An undeniable thrust behind the first series’ success was the adult treatment of sexual relationships, those intimate scenes exuding a passion and hunger that seduced viewers. Before a chemistry read with Palladio – where prospective leads are paired to learn if they have a complementary energy – Scholey rewatched the first series to “remind myself what I might be in for.” She also discussed the role with her husband Jim, who she married 18 months ago and unlike her first husband with whom she has a daughter, doesn’t work in the industry. “I needed to check with him as well if he was OK with that because it’s quite a sexual part and a sexual story and it’s important to discuss that with your partner. He’s very supportive.”
Such support extended on to the set with the intimacy coordinator Vanessa Coffey. “I really enjoyed working with Vanessa. There are a few quite intense sex scenes and I felt very safe having Vanessa there – and she’s an ex-dancer, so the scenes were all beautifully choreographed,” explains Scholey, who admits to struggling with the introduction of these specialists.
“I’ve spent two-thirds of my career not using one, so it was a shift. It’s tricky when actresses who’ve had to deal with these scenes on their own suddenly have a person with a set way of behaving. To have a specific person behind the camera with an eye for specific details, protecting your modesty is really good. They know exactly what’s in your contract.”
I ask if that sense of safety removes any awkwardness when family and friends watch those scenes. “No, it’s still incredibly embarrassing. I give my mum time codes – ‘At five minutes and 30 seconds, get Dad out of the room’. I’ve now got a father-in-law to worry about as well, so he also gets time codes.”
Sam Palladio as Jacob in The Couple Next Door. Channel 4
SAM PALLADIO
...plays Jacob
SAM PALLADIO
Plays jacob
Intimate sex scenes are what you might assume would cause an actor to consider if they were right for The Couple Next Door — those scenes that linger in the imagination long after the TV is turned off. But what gave Sam Palladio pause for thought was the thought of following in the footsteps of Sam Heughan.
“The only hesitation was seeing Sam Heughan’s incredible body in season one and thinking, ‘Goddamn it, how do I compete with that?’” laughs the British actor and musician, speaking from his Nashville home. “He set a very high standard of toned abs. I got as close as I could in a few weeks.”
Joking and gym regime aside, auditioning for Jacob, an outwardly successful anaesthetist who’s riven with status issues, was a “no-brainer” for Palladio.
“I was looking for something grounded and natural and I was looking forward to using my own accent. I’m not playing a prince charming or a guitar-toting Southern songwriter,” says the co-lead, touching on why he’s called Nashville home for the last 13 years.
In 2012, Palladio moved to Tennessee for six months to play songwriter Gunnar Scott in a new TV series; that show was Nashville, a glitzy depiction of rivalry between country and western singers. Six months stretched to over a decade.
A pop-culture phenomenon, the series spawned multiple albums and live tours that continue to attract thousands of fans, with Palladio and other Nashville stars touring the UK next February. Over the last couple of years, the 38-year-old has focused on his own material and last autumn released his debut album, The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost the Light.
Pål Sverre Hagen as Isak. Channel 4
This has been a creatively rich period, but a combination of an inner yearning and life experiences made this project impossible to ignore.
“I’m from Penzance and I still very much love the UK and its arts, so there was a huge part of my soul which couldn’t wait to return to the UK for work,” says the Cornishman, who also had a lead role in the Netflix romcom trilogy The Princess Switch.
The intimate scenes were shot together – we called it Sex Week
Sam Palladio
“I’ve lived a lot of life in the last six or so years, like losing my mum. Those big events opened me as a person to some deeper aspects of life, and you begin to understand yourself a bit more from those challenging situations. I came to Jacob with more of a toolbox of experience and emotion.”
Little could have prepared him for some of the more explicit scenes in the drama however, with the actor admitting their intensity charted new personal territory for him.
“When I read the last ten pages of the script for episode three, I wondered, ‘How are we going to shoot this?’ Thankfully we had Vanessa,
who’s an amazing intimacy coordinator, and we shot a lot of those scenes at the very end of the production, so Annabel, Aggy and I were very comfortable with each other. We were really good mates.”
That block of filming looming on the schedule even earned a nickname. “We called it Sex Week because all the intimate scenes were grouped together. We were all in the gym working towards Sex Week, comparing how many carbs we’d eaten that week,” he jokes.
Palladio is currently single – he suspects not having a partner during production made the work “a little easier” – and I ask if the drama’s exploration of relationships made him ponder the essentials for a happy one.
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“One built on trust and honesty; that allows you to tackle anything together. When secrets start creeping in, cracks start to show,” he replies. “I’m moving into a new chapter for myself as a single guy, which is about learning from mistakes and wearing my heart on my sleeve more. Then you’ve got nothing to hide. You can relax and be yourself.”
Authors
Toby Earle
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