Jaime Winstone and Ashley Walters in Paul. Picture from the B.B.C.

Originally published by L.S. Media. June 19th 2012L.S. Media Rating ***

Cast: Ashley Walters, Jaime Winstone, Lacey Turner, Aymen Handouchi

The second of B.B.C.’s new series of partly improvised plays sees Ashley Walters as Paul, a man with a good job, a good wife and a nice house but whose fatal flaw is boredom.

Paul follows on from the previous night’s episode of Nick and the idea of true love as a relief from the monotony of life and boredom plays heavily throughout the half hour drama. The story overlaps as Lacey Turner returns from the previous episode and where as in Nick she was seen as a go between or conduit between Nick and his first love; urging the usually reliable and loving Nick to go off with her sister, in this brief episode she finds out that her own husband has having an affair with the mysterious Stella.

Although the filming of this particular half hour was shot in conjunction with the previous episode, the feel of the drama was different; it didn’t have the same pull for viewers as Nick. As should be expected, the three main characters at the centre of the affair storm were portrayed by three exceedingly good actors in Ashley Walters, Lacey Turner and Jaime Winstone but the chemistry that you would expect from the three was relatively none existent. The moment of betrayal was rather drab and unlike the well written Nick, there was no moment of moral conscious where Paul ever thought that what he was doing would destroy lives. This had the feel of misplaced arrogance and only staying because he realises that the cheater has been cheated upon.

Although there is retribution and pathos within this act as Stella does the dirty on Paul, the long lingering silences that he endures alone as he struggles to take in that he has in fact been  duped were tantamount to suggesting that this man’s fatal flaw was due to lack of imagination rather than an unsubtle and selfish act.

There was one shot towards the end which gave the play more meaning and a tinge of observance. As the camera pulls out from Paul and his wife, the shadow of the barred windows against the silhouette of his face gave the viewer the realisation of how trapped the couple actual were. Stunning visually but the words let down the end result.

Ian D. Hall