Sunday nights on the BBC are usually the time for easy viewing, the televisual equivalent of the Carpenters. Think the low-stakes competition of reality shows such as Dragons’ Den and Win the Wilderness, or provincial dramas such as Last Tango in Halifax. This weekend, though, there is an altogether different type of entertainment on offer. Trigonometry is the sex-laden tale of a thrupple which develops when Ray, a Frenchwoman who is a newcomer to London, moves into the cramped flat of cash-strapped couple Gemma and Kieran.
The series begins with a Black Swan-style synchronised swimming contest gone wrong, an interrupted bout of masturbation and an argument. And that’s all in the first five minutes. This is bracing TV to make you sit up on your sofa.
“The show isn’t us just going, ‘Here’s a thrupple and we’ll watch them having sex together’,” says Trigonometry’s star Ariane Labed, who plays the French interloper in her first TV role. “There’s no judgment here – we want the audience to just be accepting of their love and not questioning morality because it’s clearly love first.”
Labed began her career in dance and theatre, before making her film debut in the critically acclaimed 2010 feature Attenberg, directed by Trigonometry’s lead director, Athina Rachel Tsangari, and for which she won a best actress award. She went on to roles in The Souvenir and The Lobster, which was directed by her husband, Yorgos Lanthimos, before writing and directing a short, Olla, in 2019.
“Yorgos and I share a lot but we don’t want to work together any more,” she explains. “We’ve done it before and now it’s good to have some distance. When we work together on the same project, nobody’s helping each other. It’s not the case that we’re one unit; we are separate artists.”
Labed moved to London in 2012 with Lanthimos, and sees in Trigonometry an authentic representation of their new home. “When I first read the script, I really liked the fact that nobody’s asking anyone where they come from – my character is obviously French, but it’s never spoken about and that’s what I experienced in London,” she says. “Here, when I walk in the street I hear all the languages in the world and that’s what London is made of, this beautiful diversity.”
Does she worry that Brexit will change all of that? “I hope not all of us Europeans will leave or have to leave because if we do, the UK is not going to last very long. I don’t want to imagine that; I feel at home here because everyone makes me feel at home.”
Filming eight episodes of Trigonometry over four months, Labed had to adjust to the snappy pace of television. “It was so fast I remember thinking: ‘I don’t have time to learn my lines, since they’re all in English,’” she laughs. “Athina and I can take our time [in film], so we had to adapt – that’s why the camera is always moving, so she could shoot up close and give a sense of our growing closeness, as well as film multiple takes together.” One of the most striking examples of this is used in a bathroom scene where the three lovers are trying to wash glitter off themselves after a night out; the camera continually cuts to their longing gazes for each other’s bodies, honing in on the tense intimacy that develops in this least romantic of locations.
“We don’t see enough portrayals of authentic female desire on screen,” Labed says. “What I love about Trigonometry is that sexuality and sex is seen as light, cheerful and clumsy. It’s not like suddenly the light changes and now it’s a sex scene and everything starts to be weird and serious. Our approach is authentic and that means having a female character casually masturbating in one of the opening scenes.”
With such an unapologetic approach, as in other TV hits such as Fleabag, Insecure and Wanderlust, comes greater scrutiny on the process of filming sex scenes, prompting the inclusion of intimacy coordinators on many sets – although not here. “We all had a great connection on Trignometry,” Labed says. “It was easy to be generous with each other as Athina has this wonderful approach to the sex scenes where she doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but it’s always very choreographed. Everybody involved is respectful and everybody cares; when it’s like that, it’s very easy. We didn’t need an intimacy coordinator because of that, but I think it’s very important to have the option.”
Having taken on several careers in her 35 years – dancer, actor, writer and director – Labed connected with Ray’s career predicament as a synchronised swimmer who has retired at the age of 30. “It’s so contemporary. In our generation, it feels like we have to start over and over again, that things are constantly changing,” she says. “For Ray, she’s even more alien because she comes out of water and it’s like she doesn’t know how the world works. The only thing she has is her body.”
That embodiment is a key feature of Tsangari’s approach, one which saw Labed goose-stepping and dancing throughout Attenberg. “Ultimately, Athina looks at the world with a lot of love,” Labed says. “She’s observing it as if she’s from another planet somehow, without judgment. That’s what makes Trigonometry captivating.”
Despite having vowed to “never do TV”, it seems Labed has caught the bug and is currently filming a new series in France, where she will return to her roots as a dancer. “When I read something good I can’t resist it,” she says. “There are some themes that will always resonate no matter the time or place: family, relationships, desire, love.” Even on Sunday nights on the BBC.
Trigonometry starts tonight, 10pm, BBC Two
