Phil (Lindsay Duncan) and Ken (Clarke Peters) in Truelove. © James Pardon/CHANNEL 4/BBC Studios/Clerkenwell

Truelove: What Is Channel 4’s New Thriller About?

11 months ago

From the team behind The End of the F***ing World

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Truelove: What Is Channel 4's New Thriller About?

Phil (Lindsay Duncan) and Ken (Clarke Peters) in Truelove. © James Pardon/CHANNEL 4/BBC Studios/Clerkenwell

Channel 4 has finally released its brand new thriller series Truelove, which flips ageist tropes on their head with a core cast in their 70s. Here’s everything you need to know before you tune in.

Truelove: Everything We Know About Channel 4’s New Thriller

Ken (Clarke Peters), Phil (Lindsay Duncan), Tom (Karl Johnson) Marion (Sue Johnston) David (Peter Egan) in Truelove. © James Pardon/Channel 4/BBC Studios/Clerkenwell

The team behind Truelove has a varied but thrilling background. The series was written by Iain Weatherby, who previously worked on Channel 4’s hit sci-fi series, Humans. Meanwhile, Charlie Covell is a co-creator and Clerkenwell Films is producing, both of which worked on the BAFTA award winning series The End of the F***ing World. Though it has a similar thrilling edge, Truelove looks very different…

What Is Truelove About?

Phil is an ex-police chief ‘enjoying a comfortable if boring retirement’, and Ken is ‘a divorcee and ex-special forces vet who feels similarly at sea,’ Channel 4 says. The pair were teenage sweethearts who, despite life having pushed on, never quite managed to forget each other. Along with their gang of old friends, they make a drunken pact: ‘rather than let each other suffer a slow and dreadful decline, they will step in and engineer a dignified death,’ Channel 4 says. ‘In short, they will help each other die when the time is right. Because that, they all agree, is a sign of Truelove. But what starts out as a fanciful idea soon morphs into a shocking reality…’.

With a core cast in their 70s, Truelove is set to crush ageist stereotypes commonly seen on screen and in real life, mixing irreverent humour and rekindled romance with thrilling twists and turns. Ayesha is a young police officer who senses there is more to this friend group than meets the eye, and the series will wrestle with the knottiest ethical question we face: is it right to help end a life?