The trio’s relatable charisma, and the residual associations of their TV roles in The Split and The Crown (where Doherty played the young Princess Anne) add mightily to the enjoyment of Mike Bartlett’s play, in which a loving but romantically stultified middle-aged couple decide to invite a younger woman into their bed and their lives.
The compelling first half sees Polly and Nick finally wrangle their way into a “three” with Kate: Bartlett avoids the smirking transience of “threesome” and the egregious tabloid “throuple”.
Later, when Polly and her doctor husband Nick (Mangan) have yet again failed to shag, she mentions her attraction to Kate.
An idea germinates, and we next see Nick fumbling his way through shame and confusion towards a tripartite agreement with the serene, improbably wise and sexually confident Kate.
In terms of watchability, a cast made up of Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty is pretty hard to beat.
