Demelza swings into suburbia: Forget the period dramas, Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson sizzles in a new thriller set in the world of wife-swapping

• Tomlinson plays Evie in The Couple Next Door, a tale of lust, grief and swingers
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Since her days as Demelza in Poldark, Eleanor Tomlinson has played an alien with an appetite for fried insects in sci-fi thriller Intergalactic and a fabulously rich socialite with anger issues in Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws.

Eye-catching roles in top TV dramas certainly, but many viewers still see her as the Cornish firecracker she played during five series of BBC1’s BAFTA-winning drama. Now, however, Eleanor believes she’s found a character that will finally allow her to move out of Demelza’s shadow.

She stars as Evie in The Couple Next Door, a sizzling tale of lust, grief and swingers in suburbia involving four achingly beautiful people who just happen to be neighbours. 

‘Evie, and the drama as a whole, are very different from anything I’ve done on TV before and potentially quite shocking,’ says Eleanor. 

‘Which is just what I wanted. I was keen to break away from what I’m best known for – costume dramas – and go to places I knew would stretch me. I wanted to break the mould and I think The Couple Next Door does that.’

Eleanor Tomlinson as Evie in The Couple Next Door, a sizzling tale of lust, grief and swingers

We first see Evie racing through dense woodland after a gun goes off in a chalet. 

Emerging from the property are her husband Pete (Alfred Enoch) and Danny and Becka (Outlander’s Sam Heughan and Australian actress Jessica De Gouw), the couple’s neighbours in Leeds. Then another shot is fired – with potentially fatal consequences.

But what could possibly have triggered this? The action jumps back in time to Evie and Pete’s arrival at their new home in a suburban cul-de-sac. 

Attempting to come to terms with a tragic loss, Evie and Pete grow close to Danny and Becka – who, it soon transpires, are into wife-swapping.

Danny takes Evie for a ride on his motorbike and there’s a look of deep satisfaction on her face as she puts her arms around the toned torso of the handsome police officer. 

Pete, meanwhile, struggles to contain his feelings when a young couple Danny and Becka met on holiday arrive next door for the evening and Becka greets them dressed in lingerie.

The first of a number of intimate scenes between Evie and Pete arrives at the end of the first episode, and Eleanor insists they’re vital to the plot as the neighbours soon come to share each other’s beds as well as a garden fence and the occasional barbecue.

‘We had an intimacy co-ordinator to help the four of us through the more explicit scenes, and she was brilliant. 

‘She’d worked with Sam on Outlander and she made it an incredibly safe space for people to express themselves without feeling uncomfortable. Her presence allowed us to create some powerful sex scenes.’

Eleanor says it was also fortunate the four leading actors became good friends during filming. 

Eleanor with her co-stars in the show. Alfred Enoch (far left) plays her husband Pete and Outlander’s Sam Heughan and Australian actress Jessica De Gouw (second from right) play Danny and Becka, the couple’s neighbours in Leeds

‘It’s incredibly rare, in my experience, to get this close to your co-stars. There was immediately a bond of trust between us as we prepared for the intimate scenes, and there’s still not a day goes by when we’re not in touch.’

Poor Hugh Dennis had a totally different experience because most of his scenes as Alan, the cul-de-sac’s resident Peeping Tom, were either filmed on his own or with Alan’s disabled wife Jean (Kate Robbins). 

‘There wasn’t much engagement with the other actors,’ says Outnumbered star Hugh. ‘There’s a scene where Danny throws Alan into a wheelie bin but that’s pretty much as far as the interaction went!’ 

Playing such a loner meant Hugh had to make an extra effort to bond with the others. ‘He came up to me at lunch one day and said, “Can I sit with you because I don’t know anybody else,”’ recalls Eleanor. ‘I felt sorry for him so I said, “Of course you can” and we got on like a house on fire.’

The show is based on a hit Dutch thriller, and although it’s set in Leeds it was mostly filmed in the Netherlands. ‘We discovered an area of Eindhoven that has different quarters, English, French, American and Italian, with just the right kind of architecture,’ explains director Dries Vos. 

‘So we’ll know where to go if we ever do an Italian, American or French version!’

• The Couple Next Door, Mon, 9pm; Tue, 9.15pm, Channel 4.

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