The Suspense In C4's Close To Me Is Particularly Intense For A Good Reason

Inspired by Amanda Reynolds’ debut novel of the same name, Channel 4’s new drama, Close To Me, sees Connie Nielsen star as Jo Harding, a woman who wakes from a fall with no memory of the past year. The six-part series follows Jo’s journey as she pieces together what happened, and why her husband Rob (Christopher Eccleston) and her kids have been hiding something from her.

Thanks to the stellar acting and chemistry between Nielsen and Eccleston, the increasingly strained relationship between Jo and Rob may lead viewers to question whether Close to Me (the book, and therefore the series) is actually based on a true story.

In interviews with Reynolds about the book, the author doesn’t mention any real-life inspiration behind the frighteningly isolated experience that Jo experiences after her fall. But Filippa Wallestam, NENT Group chief content officer, told Variety that the reason the show is so gripping is that it focuses on “a subject rarely highlighted on screen: the female mid-life crisis.”

As a woman in her mid-fifties, Jo has reached a point in her life where she’s begun to question the role she has in her family. This is obviously exacerbated by the fall, loss of memory, and seemingly hidden truth. “Jo is having identity issues which are, according to my female friends, very common in late middle age,” Christopher Eccleston, who plays Rob, told RadioTimes. “The way they are treated in society shifts,” he added.

Eccleston also noted the “lovely reversal of the usual, far too familiar, sensitive, caring female” that is often the focal point of a typical drama that takes “a supportive role to a male as they wrestle with existential dilemmas. Instead, his character “realises that his role is to try and aid his life partner in a physical and emotional recovery, but also support her going through the menopause.”

But whether that role changes remains to be seen, as Rob seems to be hiding something from Jo – as do her children Sash and Fin (Rosy McEwan and Tom Taylor).