‘Truelove’ by Charlie Covell and Ian Weatherby

Phil, a retired deputy chief constable, and Ken, an ex-SAS soldier, reconnect at a friend’s funeral. With some of their other schoolfriends (Tom, his sister Marion, and her husband David), they drunkenly make a pact to assist each other to die if and when the time comes. Months later, Tom reveals he has cancer and, after a failed suicide attempt, Phil and Ken help him end his life, making it look like suicide. Ayesha, a bright young police officer, has suspicions about the death, but the inquest finds nothing amiss. Later, Marion’s dementia appears to be advancing and she and David enlist Phil and Ken to help her die too. Reluctantly, they accompany her while she drinks medicine sourced by David, an ex-doctor, who is elsewhere with an alibi. However, after consulting Marion’s GP and postmortem reports, Phil realises Marion didn’t have dementia but David wanted her killed in a way that left him blameless. Ayesha is forced by her boss to stop snooping, but one of her colleagues realises what’s happened and confronts David, who rashly kills him. David tries to flee the country and Phil and Ken, independently, chase him down to a passport office, where Phil ends up killing him. She and Ken drive off and reconcile their past failed relationship, before she gives him the slip and hands herself over to the police.

‘Truelove’ is a complex drama in which assisted dying is used both to explore moral issues and as the plot device in a police thriller. The series plays on the familiar statement, ‘If I ever get like that, take me out the back and shoot me’, emphasising the ambiguities of decision-making for family members and individuals when considering an assisted death, and highlighting possible issues around the unfairness of the current system and the potential for coercion if assisted dying were legal. It does so alongside other themes such as romance between older people, female leadership, and the difficulties of getting older. The show shares similarities to co-creator Charlie Covell’s earlier series The End of the F***ing World, with an increasingly dark comic energy, thriller-like plot and curiously British setting of mini-roundabouts, bungalows and seaside cafes, with filming based around the Bristol Channel. These factors go some way to normalising Phil and Ken’s actions, which in the context of their rekindling relationship are implied to also be acts of love, however transgressive. Yet, in interview, cast and writers were keen to play down the assisted dying element in favour of other aspects. Reviews were favourable, emphasising the nuanced performances from the leads and the tender subtle way the show dealt with its complex and potentially upsetting themes. Although the series has yet to be mentioned in parliamentary debates on the issue, it is a good example of the increasing sustained attention being paid to the topic in cultural outputs in the UK.