Can't get a doctor's appointment? Barge in and snog your GP instead: Christopher Stevens reviews Adultery

Published: 18:31 EDT, 26 October 2026 | Updated: 18:38 EDT, 26 October 2026 Adultery (ITV)Rating:Forget the 8am phone lottery. Never struggle to book a doctor's appointment again. Simply walk into the surgery and plant a smacker full on the GP's lips.It worked for Beth (Romola Garai) in Adultery, not once but twice. The first time, her flimsy excuse for a visit was to return dashing doctor Tom's cycle helmet, after she knocked him off his bike. On that occasion, she didn't actually snog him – she just directed a smouldering gaze that left him in no doubt she wanted to tear his clothes off.But on her second visit, finding him alone in his consulting room once again, she lost no time in clamping faces. After that, they were having it away at every possible opportunity: in the car, in her friend's bed, even in the deserted soft play area of a city farm (obviously, they should have used the petting area). Neil (Matthew McNulty), Beth (Romola Garai), Tom (Dominic Cooper) and Hannah (Shelley Conn)We can't blame Beth. She's married to Neil (Matthew McNulty), a scruffily bearded boor with a tendency to violence, whose idea of romantic chitchat is to bang on her car window as she gets home from work and shout that he's 'off to snooker'.Builder Neil is to blame for the collapse of Beth's dream to be a fitness trainer: he expects her to be at home preparing his tea, not out running a business.And he's awaiting trial for a violent assault, a problem he made worse by marching into his victim's shop and trying to bully him into dropping the charges. Beth will be far better off without him – the only mystery is why she didn't dump him long ago.Lover Tom (Dominic Cooper) is more of a moral dilemma. He and wife Hannah (Shelley Conn) were university sweethearts, and she's suffering from protracted mental illness after a family trauma that as yet hasn't been explained.If she finds out he's cheating on her, Hannah might go completely to pieces... and she's bound to find out, because she tracks him obsessively via a phone app. Forget the 8am phone lottery. Never struggle to book a doctor's appointment again. Simply walk into the surgery and plant a smacker full on the GP's lips. Beth (Garai) and Tom (Cooper)Writer Danny Brocklehurst, who also created Ten Pound Poms, has crafted a series of clever complications, to ensure Adultery doesn't subside into banality.Both married couples are the parents of teenagers, Jess and Ollie, who are in their own relationship, loved up to the eyebrows despite their impending GCSEs.An extra dimension is added by a subtext about grief, and the strange things it can make us do. Beth's best friend has died, and she's finding herself on the verge of tears more often than she fully understands.What worries me most about her, though, is her driving. Not only did she run Tom over (fortunately, he seemed to find it quite amusing to bounce off her windscreen) but she closes her eyes at the wheel when she's singing along to the stereo.Carry on doing that, and she'll need more than a GP's appointment.