BBC America spices up its Friday nights with Mistresses

“A sex scene is always embarrassing and nerve-racking,” says BBC America’s Mistresses star Shelley Conn. “You always think, is this really necessary? You just have to surrender to it because there’s nothing worse than seeing people doing scenes like that and looking embarrassed.”

     Mistresses explores how four thirty-something women feel about love and sex. Shelley Conn plays the sexual adventuress of the group, happily single. Sarah Parish plays a respected psychologist who can’t even tell her closest friends of her affair with a patient. Sharon Small plays a single mom having trouble accepting that her husband died in 9/11. Orla Brady is pawed at home by her husband who views her as a baby-making machine and at the office by a co-worker who thinks she’s hot.

     Of the four characters, only the seductress Jessica, played by Shelley Conn, seems happy in her sexuality. “Jessica has definitely taken control of her love life,” says Conn. “She’s constantly bragging about how many super-studs she’s had quivering at her feet that weekend but she exaggerates what she’s been up to because it makes it funny for the girls. She loves the idea of being free. She doesn’t deliberately seek out married men. Then she finds herself actually falling in love with someone, which totally throws her. It’s also disturbing for her that it’s a woman causing these feelings.”

     “When I first read the script I was interested in the fact that the writers had created central characters who are on the wrong side of the tracks, morally speaking,” says Orla Brady. “There’s much more of a stigma now than in times past. Look at Anne Boleyn! Women are judged more harshly for a range of things, from drinking too much to being tough in their jobs to... having affairs. It struck me that it’s not a position one chooses but one in which a woman finds herself. After all, no young girl sits dreaming of becoming someone’s mistress. The other aspect of this that I wanted to explore was what would happen to a loving couple once one of them has been unfaithful, once lies have been told and trust is broken. Can that be repaired?”

     “This series in itself is very taboo,” says Mistresses star Sarah Parish. “It’s a touchy subject. You can’t sit in the pub with your mates and ask who’s had affairs. That would break up marriages there and then. There are always people that you know of that are with someone and then meet someone else. It’s always a terrible thing for them and for the other person. I remember very clearly the total and utter guilt that they felt.”

     “I think everyone watching will be able to relate to the characters’ stories,” says Mistresses star Sharon Small. “I think it will be hard for the viewers not to be too judgmental on certain characters’ situations. What’s nice is that the females are leading this drama and the men are following their stories. So often it’s the opposite way. Usually, the male characters are really well rounded and the females are more supporting characters.”

     Whether it’s Mistresses, Lipstick Jungle, Cashmere Mafia, Sex and the City, Charlie’s Angels or Desperate Housewives, what’s key to this type of show is the female bonding, the close friendship that feels like family. However, the girls are only in two scenes together per episode and otherwise are individually pursuing their storyline.

     BBC America is presenting Mistresses as a drama and thriller. Despite these ladies’ charms, don’t expect laughs from these characters. The music, by composer Edmund Butt, would have you think you’re watching a gritty crime drama like Prime Suspect. It’s not Sex and the City. More like Desperate Housewives during its dark phase. And the men are, as Conn’s character points out, “prats”. That she realizes such men are beneath her concern makes the seductress the sanest one of the group.

BBC America 6-episode series Mistresses premieres Friday, February 20, 8pm.