Jack Farthing plays Richard

Can you tell us about your character, Richard?

He’s a young guy who, for me, feels like he’s always clinging to his youth. He is facing being in a friendship group whose friends are growing up more quickly than he wants them to. He is the party guy of the group, who will often be the last one standing. We meet this group at a very particular moment (after Chloe’s death) so he is a very particular type of Richard, as we see him, which is maybe different to his normal self. Superficially he’s very happy, energised, the life and soul, but beneath there’s a lot more darkness.

How does Richard fit into the friendship group?

Alice Seabright described him as the kid of the group; he’s boyish and that’s where he fits in. There’s a feeling that Livia is the mum, or at least maternal towards him, and I think their relationship is lovely, and he really feeds off that.

It felt quite clear to me when I read the scripts - because so much is mentioned about his Dad and nothing is mentioned about his Mum - it felt like he’d lost his Mum. I think there’s a lot of Richard trying to find that relationship again and go back to the time before his mum died, and he finds a ‘mum’ in Chloe and Livia. I think that makes him the child of the group - he’s the one who everyone’s like, “shut up Rich”, or “don’t do that Rich”. There’s obviously so much love between them all and in a way his vulnerability and boyishness make him more lovable.

Why is Richard so suspicious of Sasha?

He’s suspicious of her because he’s got a memory of her somewhere that he can’t quite locate, which is quite unsettling. I don’t think he thinks the worst or anything, but it’s a vague memory, and he’s questioning, do I know her, do I know her? He’s also fiercely protective of his group of friends and anyone who jeopardises that or who comes in without having a good reason. He wants to make sure she knows that this is a very core group of mates, and she doesn’t quite deserve to be here.

What do you think are the central themes of the show?

There’s a lot about online personalities, who you present yourself as online and who you actually are. The complicated relationships between a group of people who’ve known each other a long time; it’s quite interesting the age of the group of friends in this show, it’s that early 30s time, where you’re no longer really young where nothing matters. They’re very much at the start of the rest of their lives and what that brings. I feel like you don’t see that many shows about people in their early 30s, the focus has been on younger groups of friends. Whereas this is a slightly different slice of people, complicated people who are no longer the ‘young ones’.