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MONOGAMY? IT'LL NEVER LUST
Sex, swearing and drug-taking — BBC’s ‘rudest ever’ drama Wanderlust explores having affairs in order to SAVE marriages
IT’S not just the sex scenes, swearing and drug-taking that will spark controversy when erotically charged drama Wanderlust launches on our screens tonight.
The BBC1 six-parter also wades into the taboo subject of open relationships and appears to promote playing away as a means of saving a marriage.
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In the show, Hollywood star Toni Collette plays a sexually frustrated wife who tells her husband she wants to have sex with other people.
Despite having been happily hitched to the father of her two children for 15 years, Toni herself is surprisingly open-minded on the issue.
She even backs the daring suggestion underlining Wanderlust that the concept of monogamous marriage may now be out of date.
Toni, 45, says: “People got married and died when they were very young, but we’re all living longer lives and I don’t know if they are sustainable.
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“We all subscribe to this way of living in a very unthinking way and this just gives you another perspective, and Wanderlust is fresh and unique in every way.
“And why not? This is it — we’re all going to die one day.”
Far from cringing at seeing his wife making love to multiple men on screen, Toni’s drummer husband Dave Galafassi has already watched every episode and loved seeing her in the throes of passion with others.
She says: “He’s really open-minded and pretty aware of what life can throw at people.
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“The one thing he did say was, ‘This is the best thing you’ve ever done.’ It made me cry.’”
In Wanderlust, Toni plays Joy Richards, a therapist who is married to schoolteacher Alan, played by Steven Mackintosh, 51. Joy still loves Alan but has long since fallen out of lust with him, so she suggests they both start sleeping with other people.
Toni says: “It’s about looking at life in a different way. These people are co-existing and it’s only when they connect with themselves that they really connect with each other.”
The series, filmed in Manchester, is a Netflix co-production with the team behind Doctor Foster and features scenes so saucy that Toni was surprised they were allowed airtime.
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Tonight’s opening episode starts with some awkward moments in which the couple try in vain to make love before Joy resorts to a solo sex act when Alan leaves the room.
Unfortunately, their teenage son walks in on her.
From here on in, the sex scenes — the likes of which have never before been seen on the Beeb — grow increasingly explicit.
One of Alan’s female colleagues catches another teacher touching himself at school while poring over a catalogue’s lingerie pages.
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And it is still only episode one.
Though Joy’s story revolves around sex, Toni is not about to apologise for it.
In fact, she sympathises with Joy’s search for satisfaction in bed.
Toni says: “They are not high concept, but actually they’re the most f***ing important things to all of us.
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“You want to start thinking about what you do with your time on this planet.
“And that’s why Joy is questioning the structure of her life and her relationship and what she really wants.”
Even so, she admits: “I was nervous about doing all the sex scenes at first, but it’s such a part of Joy and Alan trying to find a way of making their relationship sustainable.”
Australian Toni, who shot to fame in the 1990s in films including Muriel’s Wedding and The Sixth Sense, certainly seems to have found a way to sustain her own relationship.
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In 2003 she married musician Dave, 40, a year after she was introduced to him following a performance of his band, Gelbson.
They wed in a ceremony assisted by Buddhist monks near their home city of Sydney. Among the guests was Rachel Griffiths, her co-star from 1994 hit Muriel’s Wedding.
Yet unlike Abba-fan Muriel, who was desperate to head down the aisle, Toni never planned to get married.
She says: “It was never something I felt I had to do.
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“Women in the States seem to think, ‘I gotta meet a man, I gotta get married’. I don’t get that.
“I was getting on with my life and having a great time. I really did not expect to meet my husband.”
The couple have enjoyed a scandal-free marriage, which has produced daughter Sage, ten, and seven-year-old son Arlo. But Toni admits it has not always been an easy ride.
She says: “My husband puts up with a lot for me. As long as you keep communicating, have respect and have the same intention to move through the world together, you will.”
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That sounds like she might have tried therapy — the profession that Joy in Wanderlust specialises in.
Toni says: “Therapy is a great thing — it only makes your life deeper and more connected.
“I loved playing a therapist, too. It’s someone that we associate with someone who has everything all tied up and clear. But Joy is all over the place at this point in her life.”
Toni herself is far from “all over the place”. After she earned an Oscar nomination for The Sixth Sense in 1999, she moved to Los Angles to develop her career and has since worked in Hollywood and on TV.
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As well as films including 2002’s About A Boy and 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine, she had the starring role in hit US TV comedy-drama series The United States Of Tara, from 2009 to 2011, about a housewife with multiple personality disorder.
Earlier this year she scored another big movie hit with horror flick Hereditary, and now she is on UK TV in Wanderlust. Toni, who reckons TV is far more daring than mainstream movies, says: “I’ve been really lucky in terms of the characters I’ve been offered and the experiences I’ve had.
“At the moment there are massive budgeted films and they seem to be kind of watered down and sanitised. Therefore they have nothing to say.
“And in TV it’s kind of the opposite, which is very exciting.”
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Of Wanderlust, she adds: “This is pretty much the best writing I’ve ever worked with — and one of the best jobs of my entire career.
“I’m a 45-year-old woman and I’m like a pig in s**t.”
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ROCKS OFF ON THE BOX
HERE are other raunchy, ground-breaking shows that have steamed up our telly screens . . .
- Sex And The City (HBO, 1998): This racy romcom set in New York followed four feisty women who openly discussed sex, promiscuity and relationships. It was full of outrageous moments such as when the pals went to a demonstration of tantric sex. The show had numerous sex scenes – many involving the most promiscuous character, Samantha.
- Queer As Folk (C4, 1999): The acclaimed drama followed the love lives of three gay men and their exploits on Manchester’s gay scene. The main character Stuart, played by Aidan Gillen, was the most lust-filled and had many sexual partners – including, controversially, a one-night-stand with a 15-year-old schoolboy.
- Tipping The Velvet (BBC2, 2002): A risque series set in Victorian England, it told the story of a lesbian romance and featured plenty of swearing and a sex toy. It starred Keeley Hawes and Rachael Stirling, who said that “to counteract any hardcore sex within it, there’s a huge sense of humour and a huge sense of fun”.
- Sex Box (C4, 2013): Guests on this panel show had sex in a box then later talked about it with host Mariella Frostrup. It sparked controversy but was slammed by some as “dull” and “awkward” as the couples didn’t reveal much about their time in the box.
- Naked Attraction (C4, 2016): A dating show in which brave singletons had the chance to find a partner by baring all. A clothed person checked out six naked people, whose faces were hidden, and picked two to decide between.
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