Chloe explores the gulf of real and online life

Fans of The Crown will know that Erin Doherty is great at stealing scenes.

When season three of the hit drama came to Netflix, much of the publicity focused on the fact that Olivia Colman was taking over the role of the Queen from Claire Foy. However, Doherty’s no-nonsense Princess Anne soon became a fan favourite.

Now though, Doherty is taking centre stage with a lead role in the new six-part thriller Chloe – although she’s not playing the title character.

Instead, she stars as Becky, a young woman who lives with her mum in a small flat on the outskirts of Bristol. Her mother suffers from early on-set dementia, and Becky balances being her carer with working as temp.

Erin explains: “Becky has had a bit of an intense start to her life. Basically, she had a traumatic event happen when she was younger and that’s impacted everything, including the way she sees herself, which then impacts the way she approaches life. Ultimately, that’s landed her in this position of being quite isolated and not having a great sense of self-worth, which leads her to get sucked into a social media rabbit hole. So, from being very isolated, that sense of connection can only happen through technology and that’s where we start with her…”

In particular, she follows her former friend Chloe Fairbourne on social media. Unlike her, Chloe appears to have it all, including an adoring husband and a circle of high-achieving friends. Then one morning, after spotting two missed calls on her phone from an unknown number, Becky clicks on Chloe’s profile, only to read comments indicating that she’s suddenly died.

When the police contact her to say she was the last person Chloe called, Becky sets out to find out the truth about her death by infiltrating her former friend’s inner circle, which is her widower Elliot (Billy Howle), and their friends Anish (Akshay Khanna), Richard (Jack Farthing), Livia (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and Phil (Alexander Eliot). However, to do that, Becky is going to have to create a new persona, Sasha.

It may seem like a dangerous game, but Erin can understand why her character is willing to play it.

The actress says: “Becky’s perspective on her own life is pretty bleak. I think she doesn’t really believe her mum is very unwell, but her mum’s illness means she’ll soon forget her, and once this happens, she doesn’t really have any need to be alive because no one will know who she is.”

Erin adds: “She is able to infiltrate Chloe’s friendship group as Sasha, because she’s not concerned with the consequences – if these people find out that she’s not who she says she is, it doesn’t really matter because she doesn’t have anything to lose.

“That perspective was key for me, in terms of the social media comparison and for Becky being able to pretend to be one of these social media perfect people and become Sasha.”

But while Becky may believe she has nothing to lose, is she still putting herself at risk?

The second episode can be seen on Monday.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you