It was the vase moment that did it. The first series of short-form romcom Cheaters truly took off when undersexed Zack, played by Jack Fox, overheard his wife in bed with another man. Surprised to find himself becoming aroused, he began pleasuring himself outside the door and grabbed a nearby vase at the climactic moment. “I was masturbating to the nation,” says Fox today. “I just remember our director telling me: ‘Longer strokes! I need to see the elbow move!’ Not a note I’d ever had before.”
“Seeing that scene pop up on Gogglebox was the greatest moment of our lives,” laughs co-star Callie Cooke. “Shirley from Caerphilly went: ‘He’s spunking into a vase!’ Marcus told Mica: ‘Put this in the planner now!’ It was fantastic for our ratings.”
Leading man Joshua McGuire chips in: “My favourite line was when Fola and Josh shag in a hotel room and you see one of her breasts.” Stephen the hairdresser went: ‘Ooh, titties!’” “That was a career highlight,” says Susan Wokoma. “I will take that to the grave, nice and proud. Because, hey, they’re still high.”
Cheaters snuck into the BBC schedules in 2022 and by stealth became a word-of-mouth hit. The series followed two strangers, Josh (McGuire) and Fola (Wokoma), who have a drunken tryst on holiday. They returned home to Peckham, south-east London, only to find they were new neighbours – both living with partners, Esther (Cooke) and Zack (Fox). Cue a hilarious, heartfelt look at 21st-century relationships, airing in addictively bingeable 10-minute instalments.
Creator and writer Oli Lyttelton recalls the exact moment he realised Cheaters had struck a chord: “Kathy Burke tweeted to say she loved the show. I was like: ‘I’m happy now. National treasure Kathy Burke likes what we did!’ Then we had another wave of people discovering it after Gogglebox.”
“It was a slowburner but there was something fun about being this niche cult show,” says Cooke. “It was like a secret club. People stop me and talk about Cheaters more than anything else I’ve ever done.” Wokoma agrees: “There wasn’t much publicity, so the reaction was testament to the show’s quality. People who love it really bat for it. In the age of too much television, finding something so elevated and special feels precious.”
The unusual format proved a strength. “I thought we were being catfished at first and it was actually a web series,” says Cooke. McGuire was equally sceptical: “Even during shooting, I assumed they wouldn’t actually air 10-minute episodes but stitch them together into half-hours. Obviously I was wrong. People love the bite-size nature of it.” “A friend described Cheaters as like a TV tube of Pringles,” says Lyttelton. “Once you pop, you can’t stop. Suddenly you’ve finished the whole lot. The Pringles of comedy-drama – that’s how I’m billing it.”
His original inspiration came from realising how widespread infidelity was. “At some point, we’ll all be one corner of the triangle: cheater, cheatee or cheated on. Affairs were something I had associated with a generation or two up – what you do when you move to the suburbs – but in my early 30s, I started hearing about people my age having long affairs. There was also a trend towards dramas about infidelity where it led to madness, murder and all went a bit Greek tragedy. It’s more nuanced than that. Psychotherapist Esther Perel wrote a book [The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity] about how it can wreck relationships or rejuvenate them. All these things combined in my head – along with the fact that in London, you often don’t know your neighbours. What if your illicit lover turned out to live across the road?”
Cheaters was described as “anti-romance” but Lyttelton disagrees. “For me, it’s always been a straight-up love story – albeit one that’s as complicated as possible. Falling in love isn’t about sunsets and gazing longingly into each other’s eyes. It’s about being terrified, anxious and sweaty.” “Cheaters is incredibly romantic,” says Wokoma. “There’s so much longing, so much that isn’t said. Stick a sexy soundtrack over it and you’re like: ‘I am bang into this.’”
Now it’s rekindling for a long-awaited second series. If the debut run asked whether infidelity can ever be the right thing, the new episodes explore what happens next. “We pick up the aftermath of exploding everyone’s lives,” says Lyttelton. “How does a relationship work if it started as an affair? What does that do for your trust in each other? It’s about communication, as much as it’s about monogamy and adultery. One fun aspect is that Josh and Esther, who were in a relationship since school, are like defrosted cavemen thrust into this modern world of dating apps and texting etiquette. I met my wife on an app and was hardened on the battlefields of Tinder. If your last date was in the 00s, it must be terrifying out there.”
As we return – opening with noisy sex in a women’s loo, naturally – it’s six months later. Josh and Fola have split from their partners to give it a go as a proper couple. He’s keen to move their relationship to the next level but it might be too soon for Fola. “Josh is in a whirlwind after finding someone who reignited his passion,” says McGuire. “He’s still high on it and starts to trip over himself, overthinking it and making wrong decisions.”
“Fola wants to take it slow and have fun,” says Wokoma. “Series one was a serious affair for her, literally, so she’s craving something easy. But, of course, we’re in Cheaters so that’s not going to happen. It’s non-judgmental, though. Every character is flawed and complicit in different ways.”
Esther has returned from travelling (AKA “shagging her way around Thailand”) with a backpacker boyfriend in tow – celebrating with sex in the cramped toilet of the coach home. “Because she’s done some yoga on a beach, she thinks she’s healed,” says Cooke. “Eat, pray, love and you’ll be fine. We soon learn she isn’t fine. ”
Zack is now a full-time voyeur but quietly determined to win Fola back. “He needs to buy The Idiot’s Guide to Enjoying Watching Other People Get It On,” says Fox. “It’s a very confusing whirlwind of sexual emotion. But where there’s a Zoom, there’s a way.”
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No vases this time but Fox still has solo set pieces. “I turned up for my big wanking scene, telling myself: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll have to do this three or four times, then you can get back to your classic British repression.’ Suddenly it was five hours later, I’d run through a whole kaleidoscope of orgasm faces and given myself carpal tunnel syndrome. It felt like I’d been in a sex car crash. But hey, here we are. Is there more risque stuff? Yes. Do I have flashbacks in my sleep and wake up screaming? Also yes.”
Was the copious sex and nudity easier second time round? “It’s still a terrible day on set, frankly,” says Cooke. “The coach toilet scene posed challenges. Some of it was filmed in an actual coach toilet. It stank. If anyone manages it, I take my hat off to them.” McGuire and Wokoma were in the same year at Rada, which adds an extra dimension. McGuire says: “We spent the first series all but naked and surrounded by a 25-strong crew, going: ‘Well I didn’t think we’d be doing this a decade after graduating.’” Wokoma laughs: “I’d pictured it being at the RSC or the Donmar.” “At least we had lots to talk about,” says McGuire. “We’d lie nude in bed going: ‘Have you heard from so-and-so?’”
For viewers, a two-year gap between series feels long enough. In fact, it’s four years since they made the debut season (blame the pesky pandemic). “Something that helped my writing is that in the interim I got married,” says Lyttelton. “It’s a reminder that in reality love stories don’t end. They’re an ongoing thing. Life is a series of obstacles to making your relationship work. I wouldn’t say series two is more mature, given how much bathroom sex there is, but I’m in a different place. Cheaters is growing up very slowly, too.”
The new series sees Fola’s sister dub Josh “sexy Paddington”. “It’s a good analogy, isn’t it?” says McGuire. “Better than being unsexy Paddington. And Paddington seems like a nice guy. He’s friends with royalty. Everyone loves him.” “I just hope we don’t get sent any fan art about what a sexy Paddington looks like,” says Lyttelton.
Cheaters even has the royal seal of approval. When we see Josh’s queer sister at her book group, they’re all clutching copies of Prince Harry’s Spare. “We liked the idea of this LGBTQ+ book club discussing something unlikely,” says Lyttelton. “I assume someone from the Harry camp signed off on it, so he’s a good sport.”
Fittingly for the raunchiest comedy on TV, the cast WhatsApp group is called Sex Pests. “I knew they had one but didn’t know it was called that,” laughs Lyttelton. “How appropriate.”
Finally, what happened to that infamous vase? “I wanted it as a souvenir but they wouldn’t give it to me,” shrugs Fox. It seems it may have ended up in someone else’s hands. “As a gift when series one aired, the producers sent me a matching vase,” says Lyttelton. “It’s on a shelf in my house. I don’t think it’s the same vase. Maybe I should check … ”
Cheaters returns to BBC One on 19 November at 9.45pm, with all episodes available on iPlayer.