Television drama based on the novel by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Author Daisy Langrish buys a tranquil country cottage as a bolt-hole from the pressures of her busy London life, but doesn't expect her new home to come complete with a would-be suitor. The day she moves in, local gardener Henry Kent is immediately on hand to help and offer his friendship, but are his intentions sinister?
Acting
Michael Kitchen's unsettling charm—polite menace perfected.
Direction
Powell lets dread accumulate in mundane moments.
Writing
Howard's source material: predator as helper, brilliantly inverted.
Director
Tristram Powell
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Michael Kitchen and Penelope Wilton reunited here after notable collaborations; their chemistry crackles with wrongness.
Howard's novel draws from her own experience with controlling relationships—the 'helpful stranger' trope weaponized.
GB
