Captivating performance lifts story of forbidden love

'Trespasses', Channel 4's adaptation of Louise Kennedy's novel set in 1975 during the peak of the Troubles, feels like grown-up fare in tone and substance

- writes Nick Hilton

Love is inconvenient, or so the poets say. It blooms at the most difficult of times and between the most unlikely of people. That is the basic tension of romantic dramas - from Gone with the Wind to The Summer I Turned Pretty - and demonstrates why the brutal reality of 20th century Ireland proves such an evocative backdrop for new Channel 4 series Trespasses.

It’s 1975 - right at the peak of the Troubles - and Cushla (Lola Petticrew) lives in a small town outside of Belfast. She works hard: doting on her alcoholic mother Gina (Gillian Anderson), teaching at a Catholic school, and helping her brother run the family pub.