This article contains spoilers for ‘Two Weeks in August’
For the past month, BBC One’s Two Weeks in August has gripped thousands of us with its sun-soaked holiday drama. Set on a scorching Greek island, it follows a gang of forty-something friends who set out to have the holiday of a lifetime, only to discover their friendships – and their marriages – aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Neither, it seems, was filming. “When we got out there it was the beginning of March. It hadn’t warmed up yet,” says Antonia Thomas, who plays villain-apparent Jessica. “That’s when we were filming the early scenes in bikinis and jumping in pools. It was freezing. Production had to run in with blankets.”
By the end of the five-month shoot – which was in Malta, standing in for Greece – the temperature had reached unbearable levels. And not because of the fire that had swept across the island. “There was no real fire,” says Thomas. “We had to keep being reminded that we had to make it seem like there was. We kept being told, ‘It’s smoky, you’re in peril, the stakes are high!”
‘Jess just has a slightly different social filter,’ says Thomas (Photo: Various Artists Limited/BBC/Colin Hutton)It says a lot that the fire is the least of Jessica and her fellow holidaymakers’ worries by the end of their break. Before the flames arrived, Jessica had snogged her friend Zoe’s husband Dan, and Zoe had in turn started an affair with Jessica’s husband Solomon (and slept with a local twenty-something), leading to Dan and Zoe deciding to get a divorce. On top of all that, Zoe is having creepy visions of topless women and stinging scorpions. It’s messier than broken plates on the floor of a Greek restaurant.
Thomas understands why Jess’s friends – and indeed some viewers – might take an immediate dislike to the bold, outspoken character. “When you’re playing a character, you have to get under their skin and work out why somebody might be behaving the way that they’re behaving,” she says. “She just has a slightly different social filter; she doesn’t really realise that some of the things she says are not okay. Maybe she lacks a little bit of empathy and she doesn’t have the social intelligence to read the room.”
But Thomas also has a soft spot for Jess: “Behind closed doors, she’s really unhappy. She’s quite lonely.” Jess’s husband Solomon (Nicholas Pinnock) is an actor, and it soon becomes clear that his career takes precedence in their (and their children’s) lives. “People make compromises in their lives, don’t they? And that’s the compromise she has decided to make,” says Thomas. “She’s willing to accept that version of life. So when she kisses Dan it’s because she wants to feel good and wanted in that moment. It’s a selfish act, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere.”
One of the most pivotal scenes for Jess comes in the finale, when she finally sits down with Zoe (Jessica Raine) for a heart to heart. “She makes me feel sad when she tells Zoe she doesn’t have any female friends,” says Thomas. “She doesn’t know why people don’t want to be friends with her and that’s sad!”
Jess and Solomon’s relationship isn’t as happy as it seems (Photo: Various Artists Ltd/BBC/Robert Viglasky)But the conversation turns when Jess tells Zoe the truth about her and Solomon’s relationship: it had also started as an affair. “It’s a warning. She knows that Zoe and Solomon are planning to ride off into the sunset together,” says Thomas. “She’s asking, are you willing to be second fiddle? Because that’s what it takes to be with him.”
We’re let in on the real dynamics of Jess and Solomon’s marriage earlier in the finale, when they track down a boat that could get them off the burning island. Solomon, however, refuses to get on, choosing instead to wait for the rest of the group to arrive. Jess, understandably, loses her rag. “She’s saying that my child’s feelings should matter, my feelings should matter. She wants to feel important.”
Even after all that, Jess and Solomon end up leaving the island together, buoyed by the knowledge that he has won a part in a film and they’ll be moving to LA within days. “She knows him. Whether they’re happy in their marriage or not, there is something about their relationship that works enough,” says Thomas. “You can see it in the beginning when they’re this united front, the Posh and Becks of the friendship group.”
Two Weeks in August is all about “honouring yourself”, says Thomas: “How acceptable is honouring yourself within a group of friends, in your relationship, at work? We all play roles, and we all get used to a role that we’re playing.”
Jessica Raine, left, plays Zoe, who has an affair with Jess’s husband (Photo: Various Artists Ltd/BBC/Robert Viglasky)Jess, for example, honours herself a lot,” she says. “In order to survive in this marriage that makes her miserable, she thinks, ‘What are the other things that will make it better? I’m going make sure I have the best bedroom; I’m going to have a great holiday.’ Meanwhile Zoe is compromising far too much of herself – she’s looking after a partner who’s depressed, she’s raising children, she’s looking after a mother, and she’s not looking after herself.”
It’s the holiday setting of the series – and the upset of those preordained roles – that makes the series so compelling. “On holiday, we all want to be the best versions of ourselves,” says Thomas. “But just because you change your location and the sun’s out, you are still living with yourself.”
By the end of the series, none of the friends are the same as when they arrived on the island – it’s hard to imagine some of them ever speaking to one another again. Which is why, sadly, it’s difficult to see how Two Weeks in August could ever make a return. Not that Thomas is letting that stop her hope. “Everyone would love an opportunity to do another one. I hope we do. At the end of it they’re all at such odds with each other – it would be the most awkward reunion,” she says. “Though it certainly wouldn’t be a holiday.”
‘Two Weeks in August’ is streaming on BBC iPlayer
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