There's nothing I love more than a forbidden romance. Forced apart by distance or circumstance, the star-crossed lovers – a timeless Romeo and Juliet trope of right person, wrong time – has continued to captivate audiences time and again. Channel 4's latest four-parter Trespasses, adapted from Northern Irish writer Louise Kennedy's 2022 novel, is exactly that: a quietly tender yet gripping forbidden love story that lingers long after the final credits roll. Set in the small town of 1975 Holywood, County Down – just five miles northeast of Belfast – the show follows a young Catholic school teacher, Cushla, and her dangerous, passionate affair with an older, married Protestant barrister.
In the opening episode, we meet Cushla Lavery (Lola Petticrew), a quiet twenty-something who helps her brother Eamonn (Blue Lights' Martin McCann) at the pub he owns. It's 1975 and Holywood is wrought with tension, set against the backdrop of the Troubles – a conflict that saw an internal struggle between mainly Catholics seeking a united, independent Ireland, and a largely Protestant population wanting to remain part of the UK.
© Instagram/@channel4On a shift at The Anchor Bar, Cushla notices a handsome, older man – Michael (Tom Cullen) – and the connection is instant. When a group of rowdy British soldiers begin harassing Cushla, Michael steps in and defuses the situation, before offering her a drink. She politely refuses, saying she has work the next day – but the spark between them is undeniable.
When Cushla goes home to the house she shares with her widowed and alcoholic mother, Gina (played expertly by Gillian Anderson), they talk about Michael, who Gina says is a Protestant barrister who defends "some of their lads" – something he's ridiculed for by both Protestants and Catholics. Oh, and if that wasn't enough to raise the forbidden-red flag, Michael is also married.
© Peter Marley / Channel 4The chemistry is electric
Michael's fierce belief that everything will be fine if you fight for what you believe in is intoxicating – and it's what tempts Cushla to let go of her inhibitions and meet him in his bachelor flat. What follows is a tender, heartbreaking love affair. Cullen's Michael exudes a quiet masculinity that makes Cushla's desire for him entirely believable, while Petticrew's Cushla is magnetic in every scene – from holding her own among Michael's friends to caring for her mother, whose grief manifests through countless bottles of gin that Cushla eventually ends up lining up on the kitchen table.
© Peter Marley / Channel 4Gillian plays Cushla's alcoholic mother, Gina
This brings me to Gillian Anderson who, once again, proves a brilliantly safe pair of hands as Gina. Still mourning her husband's death, she sinks further into alcoholism night after night, and one particularly moving scene sees Cushla dragging her from the bath, pleading: "Help me, mummy." The eventual revelation of Cushla's affair jolts Gina from her stupor – forcing her, finally, to do just that.
© Getty ImagesLouise Kennedy's novel was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
Tom Cullen describes Cushla and Michael's love as a flower growing between the cracks in the pavement – something good and pure emerging from two hard, divided sides. And that's exactly what Trespasses captures. Louise Kennedy has said she wanted to offer a perspective of the Troubles not often depicted – a domestic, intimate love story rather than an overtly violent one. The result is a tender, devastating drama that humanises one of the most turbulent periods in Northern Ireland's history. Set 23 years before the conflict's conclusion, it reminds us that in the end, nobody truly wins.
© Mike Marsland/WireImageGillian Anderson, Tom Cullen and Lola Petticrew star
You'll like this if you love
If you watched Say Nothing – another Northern Irish drama set against the backdrop of the Troubles and also starring Lola Petticrew – you'll know what to expect in terms of historical setting. But when it comes to the romance, think of any forbidden love story where you can't help but root for the couple, even if they're doomed from the start.
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