I’ve been at more than one party where a stranger has told me they are still living with their ex, even sharing a bed. I’ve experienced this myself. I remember a sad, uncanny time at the end of a relationship.
Untangling our lives but not our bodies, supporting the other through their worst pain while trying to ignore the fact that the worst pain is you. But sometimes these strangers tell me they have been living this way for months, perhaps years, and my empathy flips to horror. I found answers in Break Clause (Thursday, 10pm), a new Channel 4 dramedy.
It’s the story of sweethearts Ben (Samuel Bottomley) and Lil (Lara Ricote), Leeds University graduates who decide to transplant their lives to London. On the eve of moving, there’s an incident that leads to a terrible confession in the hallway of their new flat. Ben and Lil break up – in the presence of their estate agent, who tells them the paperwork is irrevocable.
They will have to live together for six months until the contract break clause. But can tenancy rights correct a relationship wrong? Break Clause mines territory other shows ignore: the biting economic pressure of being young in a housing crisis.
There’s no suspension of disbelief here, no twentysomethings living in loft apartments the size of a Virgin Atlantic business lounge. The couple live in south London, in an ex-council flat with grotty underpasses. Ben has a meet-cringe with a neighbour who spots him bin-diving for food.
He’s copying videos posted by foraging influencers. Lil is an architect, Ben is a writer. It’s hard for any household to survive income inequality, by which I mean only one of them has one.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
