Twisty Friendship Thriller 'Truelove' to Premiere in March on Acorn TV
Lindsay Duncan in "Truelove"
(Photo: Channel 4/Clerkenwell Films)
How far would you go for a friend? Lie for them? Keep a secret? Help them kill themselves if they asked you to? That's the ethical quandry at the heart of Truelove, a thriller with a uniquely emotional twist that's set to arrive on Acorn TV this March.
The six-part drama follows a group of old friends who are forced to contront the creeping spector of their own mortality when one of their cohort passes away. At the wake, armed with booze and nostalgia, they make a pact: when the time comes, rather than letting one another suffer a painful decline, they'll help each other have dignified deaths That's what love — real love — means, doesn't it? But what starts as a fanciful idea all too soon becomes a shocking reality. And as the series continues, it asks difficult questions about the ethics of ending a life and the difficult choices older people must make when attempting to navigate their twilight years.
The series was initially meant to star Julie Walters (Indian Summers), but the actress had to bow out due to the cancer treatment she was undergoing at the time of filming. Lindsay Duncan (The Wheel of Time) stepped in to play Phil, an ex-police officer bored by the bland sameness of retirement. At the funeral, she reconnects with her former teenage sweetheart Ken (Clarke Peters), now a divorced ex-special forces veteran who feels similar at sea in his current era of life. These two would make an ideal duo to help carry out their group agreement but at what cost to them both?
Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters, Sue Johnston, Karl Johnson and Peter Egan in "Truelove"
(Photo: Channel 4)
Here's the series synopsis.
A group of old friends reunited at a funeral makes a drunken pact. Rather than let each other suffer a slow and painful decline they would engineer a dignified death. But what starts out as a fanciful idea soon morphs into shocking reality.
Alongside Duncan and Peters, the series ensemble includes Sue Johnston (Time) as Marion, Karl Johnson (Mum) as Tom, Peter Egan (Unforgotten) as David, Kiran Sonia Sawar (Slow Horses) as Ayesha, Phil Davis (Playing Nice) as Nigel, and Fiona Button (Industry) as Kate.
Truelove hails from co-creators Charlie Corvell (The End of the F***ing World) and Ian Weatherby (Humans). Weatherby wrote all six episodes, with helming duties split between Chloe Wicks (The Flatshare) and Carl Tibbetts (The Tunnel). Executive producers are Emily Harrison, Andy Baker, Petra Fried, and Charlie Langdel for Clerkenwell Films, alongside both Covell and Weatherby. Alex Walsh-Taylor (Lovesick) is a producer.
All six episodes of Truelove will premiere on Monday, March 31, 2025, on Acorn TV.
