''Trigonometry'' is a British comedy-drama television series developed by House Productions. The first two episodes were previewed at the 2019

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...

. It was then showcased at the 2020 Berlinale before premiering on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

on 15 March 2020. It was available that summer to stream on

HBO Max Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...

Premise

In the late 2010s, London couple Gemma and Kieran are forced to take in a lodger to make ends meet. They take in Ray and the

polyamorous Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mono ...

triad grows closer than they had expected.

Cast

* Gary Carr as Kieran *

Ariane Labed Ariane Labed (born 8 May 1984) is a French actress and film director. She is known for her feature film debut in '' Attenberg'', for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and appearing in Helen Edmundson's film ''Mary Magdalene'' in 20 ...

as Ray * Thalissa Teixeira as Gemma *

Rebecca Humphries Rebecca Humphries (born 3 October 1987) is a British actress and writer. Career Humphries attended London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has appeared on stage in productions of ''Temple'' at the Donmar Warehouse, ''Pomona'' at the Natio ...

as Caroline * Isabella Laughland as Moira *

Ambreen Razia Ambreen Razia (born 1992) is an English actress and writer. She wrote and appeared in the sitcom '' Hounslow Diaries'' (2018). She has also appeared in the television series '' Murdered by my Father'' (2016), ''Trigonometry'' (2019), '' This Wa ...

as Naima *

Anne Consigny Anne Consigny (; born 25 May 1963) is a French actress who has been active since 1981. She received a César Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film '' Not Here to Be Loved'' (2005). She is also known for her role as Claude in ...

as Mathilde * Ann Akinjirin as Dee

Production

Development

It was announced in October 2017 that

Piers Wenger Piers Wenger is a British television executive who has served as controller of BBC drama commissioning since 2016. Early life Wenger was born Piers John Wenger in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, on 29 June 1972. Career As a producer, W ...

and Peter Hollands of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

had commissioned ''Trigonometry'', an 8 30-minute episode drama produced by House Productions and written by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods. Executive producers included

Tessa Ross Tessa Sarah Ross CBE (born 1961) is an English film producer and executive. She received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award and was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Ho ...

and Juliette Howell of House and Tommy Bulfin of the BBC. Greek director

Athina Rachel Tsangari Athina Rachel Tsangari (, ) (born April 2, 1966) is a Greek filmmaker whose movies are some of her most notable works include her feature films, '' The Slow Business of Going'' (2000), '' Attenberg'' (2010) and ''Chevalier'' (2015) as well as th ...

signed on in January 2019 to direct the first five episodes, whilst Stella Corradi directed the last three.

Filming

Principal photography took place over four months at

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...

in West London. A nearby two-storey pub was used for cafe scenes. The character of Ray is a swimmer; Aquabatix were consulted for this part and helped to coach the actresses, and swimming scenes were filmed at the

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace, London, Crystal Palace in south London, England is a large sports centre and outdoor Sport of athletics, athletics stadium. It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the for ...

Release

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

were in charge of international distribution. ''Trigonometry'' was among the BBC programmes licensed by

in summer 2019. A first trailer was revealed on 10 February 2020. The first two episodes premiered back-to-back on

on 15 March followed by weekly airings. It aired on

CBC Gem CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

in Canada.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported an approval rating of 89% based on 9 reviews with an average rating of 8.3/10.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 8000970 2020 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings 2020s British comedy-drama television series 2020s British LGBTQ-related comedy television series 2020s British LGBTQ-related drama television series 2020s British television miniseries BBC comedy-drama television shows HBO Max original programming Fiction about polyamory British English-language television shows Television shows set in London Bisexuality-related television series Works by Duncan Macmillan