TV Pick of the Week: Two Weeks in August - review by Yvette Huddleston

Set on an idyllic Greek island at a villa where old friends are holidaying for two weeks in August, it looks beautiful and that picturesque setting is cleverly at odds with the story that starts to unfold. Zoe (Jessica Raine)and her husband Dan (Damien Molony) and their two young children are the last to arrive at the rental property, joining Solomon (Nicholas Pinnock), an actor, ‘resting’ at the moment, and his much younger second wife, Jess (Antonia Thomas), their young son, his teenage daughter from his first marriage and their French nanny, as well as single friends Jacob (Hugh Skinner) and Nat (Leila Farzad) – she is none-too-pleased when Jacob’s new boyfriend Will (Dylan Brady) turns up at the villa uninvited.

A comprehensive schoolteacher Zoe is kind, considerate and level-headed, smoothing things over and making sure everyone is happy. She is a good mother and loving wife who has supported her husband Dan through a difficult time – the others don’t realise quite how hard the past few months have been until it unexpectedly comes up over dinner. That revelation – Dan shares the details despite having said earlier to Zoe that he didn’t want to talk about it – puts a bit of a dampener on the mood. However, much wine and some magic mushrooms later, everyone is in a party mood, even Dan who ends up kissing Jess, witnessed by Zoe and Nat. Zoe decides at first to pretend it didn’t happen and not mention it to anyone, asking Nat to also keep quiet about it. But for Nat it is too juicy a secret and she tells Jacob who then tells Will. The differing opinions on the morality of that situation, the selfishness of the act and who should be told, sets off a train of events that leads to rising tension, difficult conversations and angry recriminations.

As Zoe is trying to navigate what has turned into a holiday from hell, she begins to see parallels in Greek mythology, while also finding her own voice and breaking out of the roles that she has been expected to play for so long – and allowing herself to be angry. The script by Catherine Shepherd is so finely-tuned, perfectly capturing the nuances of longtime friendships – a mixture of loyalty, affection and occasional irritation – and the many and varied challenges of marriage and parenthood.