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Tthe world of elite sports is made for drama. It’s monetary and photogenic, buzzing with danger and endlessly dividing people into winners and losers. But Fifteen-Love, the new six-parter starring Aidan Turner and newcomer Ella Lily Hyland, has a very particular dramatic angle: a wild blind spot in the law on safeguarding minors. I’m still confused about that, Turner tells me about Zoom in the Cotswolds. If you are a doctor, nurse or teacher, it is illegal for you to have a relationship with someone under the age of 18 in your care. But there used to be this crazy loophole that it didn’t apply to coaches.
This is the backdrop against which the show projects a drama with a number of shape-shifting ambiguities that can be difficult to categorize. Where do you place the genre of Fifteen-Love?, Turner asks me. I don’t really know. I can tell you what it’s about: a young player, Justine (Hyland), who accuses her coach, Turners character Glenn, of sexual assault. But it Is difficult to attach; it begins as riches porn, moves to mystery, has political undertones, but remains cautiously ambiguous, both in the he-said/she-said puzzle that drives the plot, and in a tone full of deceptively cheerful interactions that almost blindside. viewer to a darker place. That’s usually easy to do with any movie, Turner continues, you dip your toe into it, you know what genre it is, even if it’s opaque, you can imagine where it sits, what demographic would roughly watch it. It’s weird to send it all out into the ether without knowing how it will land in the world.
Eight years on from his prime-time breakthrough at Turners 2015, such an impact that he’s still routinely headlined by PoldarkHeartthrobAidanTurner, now 40. It was many things, his performance on that show, but it wasn’t subtle or confusing; As Glenn, she’s so smooth and collected that it’s almost alienating how effortlessly she moves through the world. But do you have the viewer’s right to be alienated? It’s really hard to say; there are nuances to this show that you don’t even notice until you watch it. That’s what he was after, he says, that tightrope: Are you taking care of the younger players at the Tennis Academy and that’s why you’re there? Are you there because you are a great coach and love teaching kids? Is it both? Are you a good father and a great husband? Are you a monster and a sociopath? It was a constant juggling act. Some of the characters I’ve played recently are easier to define where their morals and ethics lie. There’s something they have to decide or something they have to learn and then there’s a big reveal, but this is the same track that every romantic leads.
Of course, it’s not the first part he’s done to undermine his romantic reputation, but it’s definitely a decisive step away from it. You can only play romantic leads for so long. The older you get, the harder it is to play these roles. There’s not much in them either.
Hylands performance is excellent. It raises all the counter questions, is he a fantasist or is he telling the truth? Does he have a personality disorder or PTSD? It’s full of instinctive, raw energy, with the actor’s unbridled charisma in full control, despite being almost straight out of Liri, Dublin’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts. His degree was cut in half by Covid, and he also had one of his first roles in the Cork Midsummer Festival, which was cut short by the pandemic. In short, it was a nightmare to train as an actor, not least because of the mobbing of the audience.
Oh God, we need people, he says. It’s not even a question of introvert or extrovert. Sharing it: any art form, you want to share it, you want to connect. Despite his difficult training, he appears much more experienced than he may be. I got impostor syndrome, she says, wondering if I was ready for it. But everyone is so friendly, everyone wants you to do a good job. And it happened so fast that you are in the flow of it and you don’t have much time to think.
The real-life Hyland is surprisingly quiet and reflective after his perfectionist, high-strung performance. She has a tattoo on her arm that says 22: I’m not sure what the etiquette is to ask Gen Z what their tattoos mean, but I ask anyway and she says I actually got it in 2022. And I was 22. Confusing. Why stop here? Why not all numbers? It’s also my lucky number. Was it by any chance to commemorate getting the role in Fifteen-Love? He says he’s almost certain it wasn’t, but then works backwards and agrees that 22 makes a compelling case for the year he got his big break.
One of the most distinctive things about Fifteen-Love is its aesthetic. There is a lot of color saturation. The lens was blown up a lot during filming to create this idyllic world, says Turner. There’s a great beauty, an innocence to the show, and when it’s burst, you can really see the hole and everything fly out.
People who like tennis are really going to love all things tennis, with a wholesome sportsmanship in the background that is quite poetically contrasted with the maybe-maybe-not sexual abuse foreground. By the way, they both look pretty good at tennis, although Hyland says he’s not, they just put the ball in to make him look good, and Turner says I played badminton at my school. I play table tennis brilliantly during the holidays and thought there would be some sort of correlation between all racquet sports. But it isn’t. It’s so very different. He finally admits, I’m quite an athletic person. I have strange abilities. I am a master ballroom dancer. I can speak French. I can ride a horse. He actually has an amazing skill, kind Actors write their CVs and then panic when asked. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to show it off very often. Whenever you want to do Tom Cruise [who famously does his own stunts], you’ll see four really sweaty executive producers thinking we don’t want you to fall on that ankle. It costs us. Its ego vs managers, insurance companies and pockets.
At least Turner gets to show off one of his skills in his latest production. The reason she’s in the Cotswolds is that she’s currently filming Jilly Coopers finest work (I think), Rivals, which has no shortage of scenes on horseback. What a cool job. I get to jump on this horse, ride, eat a wonderful lunch. And then getting the driver back to the apartment someone else paid for.