All the Hopeful Lovers

Belinda, just fifty, wistfully reflects how much better she is at sex now than when she was young and gorgeous, and then discovers to her fury that her husband Tom is having an affair. ALL THE HOPEFUL LOVERS tracks the emotional roller coaster she lives through over the seven days following her discovery.

At the same time we learn what’s going on inside the mind of Tom and of his lover Meg. Weaving through this web of middle-aged lovers is a tangle of teenage ones, as Belinda’s flirty daughter Chloe tries to set up Jack with shy Alice, without realising that Jack is full of secret longings for her. These personal dramas are unfolding in December in the tense run-up to Christmas: our own familiar world, rendered pacy, funny and emotionally on the button.

WILLIAM NICHOLSON grew up in Sussex and was educated at Downside School and Cambridge. His plays for television include Shadowlands and Life Story, both of which won the BAFTA Best Television Drama award of their year. His first play, an adaptation of Shadowlands for stage, was Evening Standard’s Best Play of 1990. He was co-writer on the film Gladiator. He is married with three children and lives in Sussex.