Adultery stars weigh in on how the series is so provocative – and why "disgusting" actions were hard to portray

With ITV having already billed its latest series Adultery as being both "scandalous" and "provocative" before it's even landed on screens, the new six-parter is certainly set to be a talked-about addition to schedules.

The series, which comes from BAFTA-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst (Fool Me Once), sees Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia!) and Romola Garai (Atonement) take the lead as Tom Kirkman and Beth Brookes, who meet after a chance encounter and get involved in a heady affair that risks tearing apart both of their families.

Seeing as extra marital affairs have long been the fodder of TV storylines, why do its stars think this series in particular is so provocative?

Garai told Radio Times and other press: "It's still very provocative for a woman to say I am going to put myself first. I think she, over the course of the show, at different points, she does that at the detriment of other people to devastating consequences sometimes to other people.

"I think it's still very rare for women to do that in the real world. It's really rare to see it depicted on screen in a way that allows a woman the right to say 'I'm doing something purely for myself'. I think that is still very scary to do culturally in our society."

Meanwhile, Cooper reflected on his time playing Tom: "Yeah, it's it's been interesting watching. Romola and I spoke at length about actually portraying these people – that was quite hard at the beginning to see whether anyone would feel for them actually. What they're doing, the betrayal and the level of that and doing as they please, it was frightening. It was like 'Actually God, I'm disgusting. This is awful. Just pull yourself together, get back to your family, and stop this stupid affair.'

"And you sort of felt, 'How on earth is this person going to be in any way felt sorry for?'. We questioned it all the time. So provocative, in the sense that I think and hope that it will create the conversation in its normality as well because I'm sure this is going on, it does go on all the time."

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Similarly, Shelley Conn – who plays Tom's wife Hannah – also said: "I suppose it's quite challenging in terms of asking people where do they see themselves in it? And what do they make of those situations? It's provocative in terms of it invites people to make judgements and then question those judgements and then question them again."

Speaking further to the divisive subject matter of the series, Cooper shared: "I think it's something that we all question and everyone has been tempted – whatever stage of their life. There's an honesty about [Adultery]. I think watching it will be quite uncomfortable for many people if they're in a couple, it will raise a lot of questions with themselves and their own relationships, reflect on your own behaviour.

"You reflect on your partners, you question the entirety of your existence within relationships. It was really kind of enforcing or taking me back to how I've dealt with situations or how I've been treated. I hope that people watch it as maybe a guide of how not to be or how damaging it can be. Or as Romola said, the cataclysmic impact and effect of this decision."

He continued: "There's a moment where you see the exact moment the decision is made in this and it's not elaborate and big. It's brilliant because it's part of what we deal with now, which hasn't been investigated.

"Affairs, love and cheating has been on the screen but actually, love and affairs and cheating in this modern age with this ridiculous thing that we're dealing with, which is just a sort of cheating tool. As he kind of points out, with all these things that I've never ever heard of before, one which we can lie and cheat and hide – or not hide actually."

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Adultery premieres on ITV1 on Sunday 25th October at 9pm, continuing on Monday at 9pm. All episodes will be available to stream on ITVX.

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