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Breaking the taboo of love

Love may be splendid but it's never simple, as a couple of the characters in The Secret Life of Us are about to find out.

THERE are two cardinal rules that should never be broken: you don't sleep with your flatmate and you certainly don't sleep with your best mate's ex.

So by that rationale, Will may soon find himself in a world of pain.

For those who have been out of the country for the past six months (and that is the only plausible excuse) Will is the hunky scaffolder on Ten's hit drama The Secret Life of Us.

After losing his girlfriend Sam in a car accident last year, he has really gone off the rails. But it has emerged in the second series that there is an angel on his shoulder.

The funky Miranda is his flatmate but is also the ex of his best mate Richie, who last year announced he was gay and she's taken more than a friendly interest in Will. Get it? Although it's not an enviable position to be in, it's not unheard of. Actor Joel Edgerton, who describes himself as "nine parts Will, one part not" hasn't done either in real life but is revelling in the situation on screen.

"It does not bode well for the friendship between Will and Richie—they've been mates since they were in primary school," Edgerton says.

"It heads into that terrain where it's a well-known rule that you don't get involved with your mate's ex and you don't get involved with your flatmate either.

"It's a weird feeling for Will and Miranda. It can be quite lonely sharing a flat with nobody else and the tension rises from that sexual frustration."

He won't reveal if this frustration is sated or not. Fans will simply, and happily, have to watch.

"That's the big question. Where is it going? Is it heading towards something full on or is it just dependence, lust, romance, boredom," he says. "But there's even a bigger question mark over the friendship with Will and Richie. Richie has more of an aversion ethically rather than being jealous. He's suspicious of what's been going on for a while."

While Edgerton has been given a lot of room with the tortured Will, the love triangle plot enables Abi Tucker to stretch Miranda a little.

"The characters are being developed considerably in this series. Miranda becomes a lot stronger and more grown-up in certain ways. She's dealing with what's going on," says Tucker.

"Everything is a bit up in the air for the three of them and I can't say what happens but there's a lot of scope for Miranda and these relationships."

Both Tucker and Edgerton are accomplished actors. She was one of the lead characters in Heartbreak High and later Wildside while Edgerton is a consummate performer on stage and screen.

He has just finished Dossa and Joe, written by The Royle Family's Caroline Aherne, was acclaimed for playing King Henry V and plays Uncle Owen in the upcoming Star Wars movie.

Shakespeare, however, is a sticking point between Edgerton and Will.

"Will thinks Shakespeare is crap and that opinion I don't agree with. Shakespeare is so awesome—the drama, the jealously, the manipulation," he says.

The Secret Life of Us, Monday, Ten, 8.30pm

by KYLIE KEOGH
February 28, 2002
Daily Telegraph