Alice & Jack is a six-part series perfect for Valentine’s night

Created by Victor Levin (Mad Men, Mad About You) and described by Channel 4 as “honest, intimate and surprisingly funny” and a “love story for the ages”, Alice & Jack has all in the ingredients to have viewers hooked.

It follows the eponymous couple, played by Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson, who after meeting one day out of the blue, make an instant connection which develops into a passionate romance.

Both of them seem perfectly suited to each other – so much so that it seems impossible that that their initial bond could ever fall apart.

However, when the pair find that they have various emotional complexities and issues in their lives, their blossoming relationship comes under serious threat.

In 2022, Newcastle-born Riseborough appeared as a recovering addict in Michael Morris’ film To Leslie, for which she earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination.

She will also soon be seen in HBO’s limited series, The Regime, playing the right-hand woman to Kate Winslet’s chancellor of a fictional Central European autocracy.

In between, 42-year-old star has been working on Alice & Jack, and she explains why she thinks it will be a hit.

“We unite in yearning to see evidence of real love, and, too, are soothed to share with one another the ache of its inevitable imperfection,” she says.

“This story is for anyone who could or couldn’t make the sacrifice that love demanded, for anyone who battles and accepts the one who makes their soul soar, for anyone who longs to feel, who has felt, and who feels the tingling anticipation of love’s joy.”

Star Wars and Harry Potter star Gleeson whose performance in thriller series The Patient in 2022 earned him a Golden Globe nomination, also reveals what drew him to the role of Jack.

The actor who turned 40 last May, says: “The only work I’ve wanted to watch and do since the pandemic is work about connection and love, and work with a sense of humour.

“Alice & Jack keep coming back to each other because they can’t help themselves – they find in each other something that they don’t have on their own.

“I think they’re soulmates, I think it’s bigger than just the two of them. Their story centres on connection and love in the most beautiful way and reminds us that we are always allowed to smile – even if it’s through the tears.”

As well as Riseborough and Gleeson, Alice & Jack also features a strong

supporting cast including Aisling Bea, Aimee Lou Wood and Sunil Patel.

It begins tonight with Alice and Jack first meeting. Although there is clearly a powerful connection, a deep trauma from Alice’s past leads her to reject Jack, who then finds solace in other, less profound relationships.

The programme continues tomorrow, with Jack is happily married to Lynn (Bea), the mother of his child.

However, an unexpected call from Alice turns his life upside down. Torn by his feelings, Jack decides to see her in secret – with devastating consequences.