 Set in a world where friends are the new family, Mistresses follows the lives and loves of a close group of thirty-something girlfriends who met at university but whose lives have taken very different turns. Each has a different experience of infidelity and love: bed-hopper, unwitting instigator, devoted mistress and wronged wife. The tangled web of love and deceit envelops all four, with life-changing revelations which prove that life is not always greener on the other side. This is a story about secrets and anger, passion and lust, loss and guilt. Sarah Parish plays Katie, the rock of the group and a respected GP, her friends think she is a long-term singleton, but she is secretly grieving over the loss of a terminally ill patient with whom she has been having a two year affair. Katie's carefully constructed existence is threatened when his son, Sam, arrives at her work with a note from his father's lover, determined to find out who she is. Siobhan, played by Orla Brady, is a successful lawyer who on the surface appears to be living in wedded bliss with husband, Hari (Raza Jaffrey). The only problem is that her sex life has become more about making babies than making love and the prospect of some red-hot passion with colleague Dominic seems irresistible. Sharon Small plays Trudi, a 9/11 widow convinced her husband may still be alive as his body has never been found and she keeps getting mysterious, silent phone calls. She is left to bring up their two daughters on her own and after a long time being single, finds herself behaving like an awkward teen on a string of disastrous dates with handsome, single dad Richard (Patrick Baladi). Jessica, played by Shelley Conn is a gorgeous, fun-loving commitment-phobe whose insatiable and adventurous sexual appetite makes her attractive to men and a mistress to many, including her prat of a boss 'Simple Simon'. Her commitment to her friends is unshakable, but marriage is the last thing on her 'to do' list in life, an irony that is not lost on her when she is asked to organise a lesbian wedding and becomes more involved than she expected. From happiness and excitement to torment and loneliness, dizzy highs to extreme lows, the friends are on a journey without signposts, led by their emotions and struggling to hold it all together. Creators Lowri Glain (Outlanders, Casualty) and SJ Clarkson (Life on Mars, Hustle) explain: "We wanted to explore flawed characters and how they deal with the consequences of their actions, and ask the question: does anybody choose to be a mistress?" Mistresses was filmed in Bristol by Ecosse Films for BBC Drama, Wales. | 
