Love on the rocks

Sean Bean and Nicola Walker play a long-married couple facing a relationship crisis

- RICHARD MCCLURE, ELAINE REILLY

Fans of BAFTA-winning writer Stefan Golaszewski’s Him & Her and Mum are in for a treat, as he returns this week with an intimate four-part drama about the simmering tensions in married life.

Airing in double bills this week and next, BBC1’s Marriage follows the emotional ups and downs between husband and wife Ian and Emma as they reach a crisis point in their long relationship.

Sean Bean and Nicola Walker star as the couple, who we first meet bickering about a baked potato – a squabble that sets the tone for what’s to come.

Ian is feeling fragile following the death of his mother and a recent redundancy. Meanwhile, Emma, his wife of 27 years, is falling for her younger boss, Jamie, who has invited her to an overnight business conference.

Here, Bean, 63, and Walker, 52, reveal more…

Where do we find Ian and Emma at the start of Marriage?

Bean Ian isn’t very sure of himself. He used to be, when he was in a relatively high-up position at his firm. But that’s gone. He’s also recently lost his mother. Emma’s working and going places, and there’s a younger man on the scene. When you add that all together, Ian’s suspicious, vulnerable and unsettled.