Sam Heughan has opened up his experience filming intimate scenes for his racy new Channel 4 drama, The Couple Next Door. The actor, known and adored for his role as Jamie Fraser in Outlander, was appearing alongside co-star Eleanor Tomlinson when they spoke about how "safe" they felt filming those scenes in particular.
Speaking to HELLO! and other press at the special Q&A event to mark the release of the six-part series, Sam, who plays PC Danny Whitwell in the thriller, said: "All of us, in various ways, have experienced those scenes and it's a strong part of the show."
He continued: "Vanessa, who I worked with on Outlander, is brilliant and she created an atmosphere and a safe space and a place for us to really inject more intimacy, or what appears to be more intimacy, without having to make people uncomfortable."
Eleanor, who plays Sam's new neighbour, Evie Greenwood, concurred: "She was terrific, she was amazing. She made it an incredibly safe space for everybody to be able to express what they wanted and what the scene needed to be, and we created that so that the scene could be the most powerful scene we wanted."
The Couple Next Door also stars The Secrets She Keeps actress Jessica De Gouw as Sam's on-screen wife, Becka, and How to Get Away With Murder actor, Alfred Enoch, as Evie's husband, Pete Thomas.
Channel 4's latest thriller is described as an "addictive, emotional roller coaster" that pays close attention to how we never know what really goes on behind closed doors. As the synopsis explains: "When Evie and Pete move into an upscale neighbourhood, they find themselves in a world of curtain twitching and status anxiety.
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"But soon find friendship in the shape of the couple next door, alpha traffic cop Danny and his wife, glamorous yoga instructor Becka. As time goes on, these two couples get increasingly close to each other and one fateful night, become sexually entangled in a way that will change their lives forever..."
Elsewhere in the cast, Hugh Dennis plays peeping tom neighbour, Alan Richardson, while Kate Robbins plays his unsuspecting wife, Jean.
Sam shared more details about his character, adding: "He comes across in the first few episodes as being quite a good guy. He's a police officer. He's got this beautiful wife and he's got a kid. Everything's just fine. But we begin to realise that underneath it all, there's a lot of secrets that he's keeping. And his relationship with Becka is tested a lot by their situation.
"They have this slightly open relationship. But it's all played out in some pretty dark places. I think this is a story about love but it's a very strange route that we go through to get to that point."
The Couple Next Door starts on Channel 4 on Monday 27th November at 9pm. All episodes will be available to stream as a boxset.