The Couple Next Door's Sam Heughan breaks down "Notebook moment"
"It may not appear to be all that it is."
New six-part thriller The Couple Next Door kicked off tonight (Monday 27th November) on Channel 4, and the sexual tension between Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Danny (Sam Heughan) was palpable.
The two sets of couples – Evie and her husband Pete (Alfred Enoch), and Danny and his wife Becka (Jessica De Gouw) – become "sexually entangled in a way that will change their lives forever", according to the official synopsis – and there's instant chemistry between Tomlinson and Heughan's characters, which builds throughout the first episode, resulting in an intensely sexy "Notebook" moment before the credits.
Evie and Danny were taking out the rubbish at the same time when they noticed one another across the street. While nothing actually happened in that moment, the way in which they were looking at one another as the rain soaked them both through, their breathing quickening as the score ramped up in intensity, certainly made an impression.
"That was very wet, very cold," Heughan said of filming that scene. "It is quite a stylised piece and that's one of its great draws. I've worked with [director] Dries Vos before on Suspect for Channel 4 and I knew I wanted to work with him again, and we had all these set pieces that felt quite stylised, and this is one of them."
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He added: "It's explained by episode 2. It may not appear to be all that it is. But shooting that, we had big rain and wind machines. I think it had been raining all week and everyone was quite depressed because it was the height of summer, and then of course, when the rain stopped, we had to get a rain machine in. And they were really drenching us, we were very, very wet."
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Heughan was also full of praise for his co-star while filming that encounter.
"Hats off to Eleanor especially," he said. "She's such a trooper, so strong. It's 2, 3, 4 in the morning, we're drenched to the bone, and she just got on with it.
"We're calling it our Notebook moment. It's kind of similar, in the rain. And all will be revealed in episode 2."
The actor also teased plenty of "oh my God" moments beyond that.
"Every episode is pretty dramatic," said Heughan. "When I first read the script way back, I was really excited by not only the relationship drama, but by Danny being a cop.
"There's this secondary story that's going on in the background that Pete's involved in as well, and of course these worlds collide towards the end. You see at the very beginning of the show, the first episode, sh*t hits the fan. And we're working our way towards that.
Read more:
- The Couple Next Door review: Sam Heughan and Eleanor Tomlinson sizzle in moreish thriller
- Sam Heughan and Eleanor Tomlinson on the "debaucherous fun" of The Couple Next Door
"And there are some quite surprising moments as well that I think viewers will be like, 'Oh my God, that just happened.' And I also think people's allegiances will change every episode. It's beautifully crafted."
Tomlinson echoed that: "Dries Vos has created it to have a David Lynch-y feel to it, that it feels dangerous all the time. It's beautifully shot, and you never quite know what's going to happen. That particular sequence [the couple in the rain] may yet be turned on its head.
"It always leaves you wanting to get to the next episode to see what's going to happen."
The Couple Next Door airs on Channel 4 in the UK from Monday 27th November, and on STARZ in the US in 2024. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Drama hub for more news and features.
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