Tangled web of secrets, lies and sex

By FIONA RAE

Sinewy threads run across the opening titles of Hearts and Bones, eventually coming to a knotty tangle as the last of the characters' faces fade out.

The symbolic entanglements of the characters' emotional lives is just one metaphor employed in this clever series where there are actual water-cooler conversations about relationships and Ally McBeal.

As the second series begins, the group are trying to pick up the pieces after the departure of Mark (Damian Lewis, who went off to do Band of Brothers), Emma's husband, who discovered last series that she had slept with not only her boss, but his own brother, Rich (Hugo Speer).

They have lost the metaphorical heart of the group and are splintered. Emma (Dervla Kirwan) is left with son Sam, redecorating the flat while Sinead (Rose Keegan) and Michael (Andrew Scarborough) blame her for Mark's departure.

After This Life and Cold Feet, the Brits have been churning out these thirtysomething (or "flirtysomething" as one critic called them) dramas that feature about six friends, lots of secrets, lies and sex. Hearts and Bones might be ostensibly similar to Cold Feet, but less annoying.

One of the strongest characters is ball-breaker Amanda (Sarah Parish), who even her boss calls "a great, big fantastic cow". She is in the forefront of tonight's opening episode. After running away from her genuine relationship with nice guy Michael, who she used to irritatingly call "Dickless", Amanda's in a bad way.

She's cracking under the strain of running for a seat on the local council and she's throwing up every morning right before snorting happy powder on the toilet seat.

She's a toughie, but is in such a state that her judgment's going and she ends up in a media frenzy, labelled "dangerously dense-gate" by the press, after some outspoken comments during a radio interview.

Meanwhile, enter a new character, Amanda's fellow Labour politician and smoothie, James (Lloyd Owen). He has some rather good advice for Amanda, but after setting his sights on Emma (who is in a rather chastened state at this point), it seems he's more ruthless than he looks.

Sinead, who is the ditzy one that everyone merely tolerated last season (and who was in love with Mark, a fellow redhead), is the character spouting the home truths, no matter how inappropriate they might be.

"I'm getting fed up with my friends messing things up," she declares in the pub and later describes Emma as "the one with the recent experience of a nasty, bitter, cruel break-up complicated by selfish lust and illicit hot sex".

Rich and Louise (Amanda Holden) are so unbearably happy that it can't last. Sweet Louise is beginning police training, albeit falteringly - she gets mistaken for a stripper - and Rich and she are engaged, which was Rich's response to his brief fling with Emma.

Hearts and Bones has a superb cast that has been provided meaty roles and great scripts. Unfortunately, it didn't rate as well as Cold Feet in Britain, and was canned after this second series. Enjoy it while it lasts.