There's nothing I love more than a forbidden romance. Forced apart by distance or circumstance, the star-crossed lovers – a timeless Romeo and Juliet trope of right person, wrong time – has continued to captivate audiences time and again. Channel 4 's latest four-parter Trespasses , adapted from Northern Irish writer Louise Kennedy's 2022 novel, is exactly that: a quietly tender yet gripping forbidden love story that lingers long after the final credits roll. Set in the small town of 1975 Holywood, County Down – just five miles northeast of Belfast – the show follows a young Catholic school teacher, Cushla, and her dangerous, passionate affair with an older, married Protestant barrister.

In the opening episode, we meet Cushla Lavery (Lola Petticrew), a quiet twenty-something who he

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