Simon (Bertie Carvel) and Gemma (Suranne Jones) were crude caricatures: Punch and Judy on acid, vying to outdo each other in nastiness and failing, quite repellently, to be responsible parents. We soon discovered the answer: they couldn’t work out how to finish it. Let’s call it Revenge Tragedy Bonkers (RTB). Would Simon end up 10 feet under? Had Gemma squashed him like a cockroach under the wheels of her car? What had Simon told Tom, which had persuaded his 15-year-old son to move in with dad, new wife and baby? Above all, how on earth were they going to come up with a plausible ending to a series which has gone beyond mere melodrama into a whole new genre of its own. Viewers tuning in to Tuesday night’s grand finale were on the edge of their seats.
“There’s only one way I’m leaving here and that’s in a coffin,” ghastly Smirking Simon warned his ex-wife in the second series of Dr Foster.
