Written by 'One Day's David Nicholls, this is unsurprisingly a story of romance blossoming, in this case between two commuters. (Those with a daily commute who spend it giving thanks that they're not spliced or sharing a shower with any of the great unwashed elbowers sitting anywhere near them may find this a bit hard to swallow.)
Sally (Sheridan Smith) and Carl (David Morrissey) have comfortable lives but are mildly dissatisfied, a fact that they face when they start a friendship on the 7.39 and find themselves attracted to each other. Sally is engaged to sweet-but-gormless Ryan (Sean Maguire) while Carl is happily married to Maggie (Olivia Colman) with two teenaged children. Sally works in admin at a leisure centre while Carl has a middle-management marketing job with a boss who puts David Brent in the shade. It isn't hard to identify with both their frustrations and their guilt at their frustrations. What grates is the unlikely emptiness of the trains, streets, gym etc. and the frustratringly out-of-whack geography and yes, even trains, for anyone who knows London and commuting. Would Sally's job pay enough to justify an hour-long commute each way? Then there's an agonisingly cliched moment where they lurch into each other on a train and another where they skirt around sharing a hotel room during a train strike.
The episode ends when they are about to sleep together "just once to clear the air". Oh please. This can only end in tears, but it's hard to care whether they're the Brief Encounter tears of denial, or the tears of ruining their other relationships.
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