There was yet another surprise for Cathy, Cat, Marilyn, Tess (and now Callum and Angela) to contend with at the end of the season 2 premiere of The Other One.
Not only does Colin Walcott have three children, all of whom were previously unknown to one another, it also emerged that he had a grand total of zilch in the bank when he died, leaving his families with diddly squat.
“Finding out you have a sister that your dad had a relationship with your whole life is already a bombshell enough, but now he’s got another love child and your sister is demanding that you have a relationship with him, and you’ve just kissed him,” Ellie White, who plays Cathy in the BBC comedy, told RadioTimes.com. “It’s very confusing. Very, very, chaotic.
“The setup itself is like, how can it get any worse? And now Colin doesn’t have any money. It’s like why do we even care about this guy? Why are we even obsessing over him? He screwed us all over to such an obscene extent.
She added: “I think emotionally, especially for the mums [Marilyn, Tess and Angela], it’s such a huge thing to get their heads around. It’s a spiderweb of chaos.”
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In an alternate universe The Other One could, quite easily, have been told as a straight drama, but writers Holly Walsh and Pippa Brown have chosen to see the funny side by leaning into the sheer absurdity of the characters’ joint predicament.
“I think it’s genius the way it does that because we all need a bit of levity in life,” said White. “There is pain and there is grief, and there is dealing with the situation at hand. But if we can’t have a laugh along the way, what are we doing?”
Christopher Jeffers, who plays Cathy and Cat’s brother Callum, added: “I think in life, even in the dark moments, there is lightness to be found, which is sometimes hard, especially when you experiencing it for yourself. But they have created this masterpiece where it deals with the serious topics truthfully and honestly, but also brings the fun to the story as well.”
The Other One season 2 is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Visit our Drama hub for more news, interviews and features, or find something to watch now with our TV Guide.
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