Towards Zero star Ella Lily Hyland has spoken about the show’s “toxic” and “twisted” central relationship.
The BBC series, an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1944 novel, follows a tennis star who, in the midst of a highly-public divorce, decides to make a coastal retreat with both his ex-wife and new partner. A murder eventually happens, and a lot of people come under suspicion.
In addition to the central mystery, there is also a love triangle between Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), his ex-wife Audrey (Hyland) and current wife Kay (Mimi Keene), a dynamic that Hyland described as “exhausting” in an interview with RadioTimes.
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“Audrey moved to Gull’s Point when she was a kid because she was an orphan,” began the actor. “Her and Nevile were together from a really early age – a sibling relationship that turned into something romantic.
“We meet Audrey as she’s filed for divorce from her marriage with Nevile. She’s very much a woman wronged. I think she’s in pursuit of her freedom because they have a very toxic, twisted, exhausting relationship dynamic.
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“They grew up together and are very dependent on each other. It’s quite childlike. I think something was stunted when they were growing up – they were probably running amok playing lady and lord of the manor.”
With Nevile and Audrey sharing a history, Hyland – who recently appeared in Netflix’s Black Doves – explained further that the “push and pull” of their dynamic stemmed from each other’s need to “win”, describing their desire as “insatiable”.
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“There’s a veneer of sophistication, but underneath there’s a very childish need,” she said. “They know each other so deeply, so they almost try to predict the move the other person makes. That’s a part of their intimacy.
“They don’t have boundaries – they never learnt them as kids, so it gets quite dangerous as adults because they don’t know when to stop. It’s an insatiable need to win and beat each other. Or win each other! That’s what drives them apart, that’s the push and pull.”
Towards Zero airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
