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An Australian thriller based on a best-selling novel can now be binged in full in the UK.
In 2020 the first season of the psychological thriller series The Secrets She Keeps hit screens.
Based on the book of the same name by acclaimed crime-fiction writer Michael Robotham, it was adapted by Sarah Walker and Jonathan Gavin, the former who worked on shows including Home and Away, Neighbours and All Saints.
Set in Sydney, the series follows two women from ‘vastly different backgrounds with explosive secrets that could destroy everything they hold dear’.
It stars Jessica De Gouw (Arrow, Dracula) as Meghan Shaughnessy, who is happily pregnant with her third child. However, her husband Jack (Michael Dorman) is on edge, facing money issues and a stressful job.
Meanwhile Agatha Fyfle (Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael) is also pregnant, with both women’s lives soon colliding.
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At the time of its release, critics were somewhat unconvinced by the storyline but praised the lead stars’ performances.
‘Without performances as layered and emotionally sound as the ones Carmichael and De Gouw give, The Secrets She Keeps would be little more than the aforementioned pulpy ride,’ Paste Magazine shared.
‘The whole thing is held together by Laura Carmichael as Aggie, a compulsive liar played at the screeching end of camp, complete with weird, limp hair and beaky fury,’ The Sunday Times wrote.
‘The leads bring more than enough credibility to their roles to make the series worth watching,’ Decider added.
However, viewers were much more glowing in their reviews.
‘It was gripping, and off-the-charts, and more than once, difficult and even stressful to watch. But this is what the best dramas do: they evoke a response from the viewer, and this did that in spades,’ user InnerWisdom1000 posted on IMDB.
‘Good casting, very entertaining and pretty tense at times. Would definitely recommend,’ Laura wrote.
‘First episode I wasn’t sure, but this series turned into a binge watch for me! Dark, and with some pretty good twists, the story of Agatha and Megan is brilliantly done. Agatha especially gets more and more bonkers in a sinister way,’ Juli added.
Although the first season was originally made available on BBC iPlayer, it was later taken down.
But two years after the second season was released, UK fans and those yet to tune in can now watch both in full on Channel 4, where the show has been uploaded this week.
The original novel was inspired by the kidnapping of newborn baby Abbie Sundgren in Nottingham in 1994.
Just three hours after her birth, Abbie was taken by a woman posing as a nurse, who kept her for 17 days.
At the time Michael was working as a journalist in London and covered the story, which he used as the basis of his novel nearly 20 years later.
‘The idea stuck with me and the turning point came when I thought about an added element — what if it wasn’t just a random baby that was taken? What if someone had faked a pregnancy and intended to steal a baby …and they had chosen the baby they wanted to steal,’ he previously told The West Australian.
While the novel was set in the United Kingdom, the television adaption was set in suburban Sydney — a change the author encouraged.
‘When I was approached, I was asked if it was a deal-breaker to me, but it didn’t really cross my mind. It is a universal story. The TV series has done an astonishing job and Jess and Laura have done an amazing job playing two women from two different sides of the economic equation … one with a nice husband and a nice house in an expensive neighbourhood, the other, who is living in much poorer circumstances, just trying to get by.’
The Secrets She Keeps is streaming on Channel 4.
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