I don’t know when television commissioners are going to learn that when a programme manages to bottle lightning, with all the viewing figures, social media buzz and general kudos that comes with that, the very last thing they should do is try to replicate it.
The new Channel 4 series Alice & Jack, billed as “a love story for the ages”, feels like an attempt to “do” Normal People for a slightly older set. Alice (Andrea Riseborough) is a successful financier who I deeply suspect was described as “enigmatic” and “feisty” in the casting callout. She first meets Jack (Domhnall Gleeson), a slightly shambolic but pure-hearted research scientist dedicated to curing diseases, on an app-arranged date. The masochist in him responds well to her blank-faced, brutal banter and they go back to her place and have sex. The next morning, she – typically – turfs him out and tells him never to contact her again.
