Fifteen-Love

Available on Amazon Prime

It’s a shame that this gripping six-part drama from Hania Elkington feel as timely as it does, given that it is concerned with an abusive relationship between a tennis prodigy and her coach, an older man who uses his position of power to take what he wants, when he wants it, and with scant regard for any resulting damage.

Fifteen-Love, which is co-directed by Eva Riley and Toby MacDonald, is charged by the performances of its two leads, with Poldark heartthrob Aidan Turner playing against type as the coercive and manipulative antagonist and newcomer Ella Lily Hyland in stellar form as a victim who decides to defy systematic odds and bring her abuser to justice.

Hyland is more than deserving of the plaudits that have been bestowed upon her performance, which makes for an incredibly complex analysis of the oscillating emotions that victims of sexual abuse are forced to endure. Throughout the series, we see her character frequently indulge in acts of self-sabotage and act obsessively towards her former mentor, which makes it abundantly clear to Fifteen-Love’s audience that the aftermath of abuse is seldom a linear experience.

Elkington also deserves plenty of credit for the way in which she tackles such a challenging topic; her writing always feels authentic and, most importantly, respectful, which often makes Fifteen-Love feel like an enlightening experience for viewers such as I who, for reasons both obvious and fortunate, can never relate to the experiences of its protagonist.

Perhaps above all else though, this feels like a call to arms - a sombre reminder that there is still so much work to do to achieve genuine equality and to reset the socio-economic relics that allow such abhorrent misconduct to so often go unchecked.