EXCLUSIVE: Starz and Channel 4 have greenlit thriller The Couple Next Door starring Poldark‘s Eleanor Tomlinson and Outlander’s Sam Heughan.
Filming has commenced in Leeds and Belgium on the six-part thriller from Professor T producer Eagle Eye Drama, which follows Tomlinson’s Evie and Pete (Harry Potter star Alfred Enoch), who move into an upscale neighborhood and find themselves in a world of curtain twitching and status anxiety. They find friendship in the shape of the couple next door, alpha traffic cop Danny (Heughan) and his wife, glamorous yoga instructor Becka (Jessica De Gouw), but after Danny and Evie share a passionate night together there is trouble ahead.
The U.S. streamer and UK network, who have never co-produced together, described The Couple Next Door as a “psychological drama, exploring the stultifying claustrophobia of suburbia and the fallout of chasing your darkest desires.”
Tomlinson is best known for playing Demelza Poldark opposite Aidan Turner across five seasons of hit BBC drama Poldark. Other credits include Stephen Merchant comedy-drama The Outlaws and Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of David Nicholls’ One Day.
Scottish actor Heughan is gearing up for a seventh season of Starz hit Outlander, in which he plays Jamie Fraser, while he is also starring in Priyanka Chopra Jonas rom-com Love Again with Celine Dion – set for May release. He generated headlines recently when his memoir revealed how a brutal rape scene in Outlander Season 1 had impacted him negatively.
Marcella writer David Allison is penning The Couple Next Door, Professor T‘s Dries Vos is directing and EPs are Jo McGrath, Walter Iuzzolino and Alison Kee.
The thriller is based on Dutch series New Neighbours and feeds into Eagle Eye’s strategy of turning European hits into shows for the major English language markets, following Channel 4’s Suspect, which is based on a Belgian series, and ITV’s Professor T, which is based on a show from Denmark.
Show was commissioned by Channel 4’s Caroline Hollick and Rebecca Holdsworth. Karen Bailey, EVP of Programming, is overseeing The Couple Next Door for Starz, and it will be distributed by Beta Film.
