Torv, who plays Alex, says both Glain and Clarkson were, to some extent, “hands off” during production, leaving the finer points of the writing to Anthony, Richard Warlow (Waking The Dead), Harriet Braun (Hotel Babylon) and others, and placing the actors in the hands of directors Philip John (Cutting It) and Peter Hoar (Wire In The Blood). Clarkson, whose credits include Life On Mars, directed two episodes.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of sitting down and talking about ‘this is what we see’,” says Torv, an Australian whose credits include The Secret Life Of Us and Young Lions. “They let it breathe, which I think is what you have to do. You have to give it over to the people you’ve entrusted it to,” she says.

Interestingly, Torv says the three directors – two male, one female – approached the project from a similar perspective, not one shaped by gender, despite the provocative theme of the series. “I didn’t see a stark contrast. In most of the stories you had both sides playing at the same time, so both got equal weight. I don’t think anyone went in judging it at all.”

“A mistress will always be a mistress,” Clarkson says. “However romantic or legitimate the phrase might be, she is, by definition, the other woman and I think there will always be a stigma attached to those women who have affairs with married men.”

Anthony, however, believes social values have changed. “I think maybe people are less judgmental now because a lot of them know someone who’s been in that situation or has been tempted. People recognise that its human nature – it happens all the time.”

Anthony thinks some women “choose” to be mistresses. “At a certain point a line is crossed, and when an affair really gets going, I think the secrecy and transgression involved can make it a really compulsive, addictive thing,” she says. “Knowing you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing, and that people could be hurt, is a very dangerous and thrilling atmosphere.”

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