LOVE songs

TERESA PALMER and JIM STURGESS on charting a story about a couple connected by music

- SEAN MARLAND

Many of us have experienced the excitement and intensity of first love. But if you were given a second chance of happiness with 'the one that got away', would you take it?

This is the question at the heart of BBC2's new drama Mix Tape.

Inspired by the 2020 novel of the same name by Jane Sanderson, the four-parter centres around Alison Connor (played by The Last Anniversary star Teresa Palmer) and Daniel O'Toole (The Stolen Girl's Jim Sturgess), onetime lovebirds who find themselves reconnecting years later.

Set across two timelines and featuring a soundtrack including 1980s rock bands such as The Cure and The Stone Roses, the story begins with a young Alison and Daniel - played by Florence Hunt and Rory Walton-Smith (see box, right) – meeting in Sheffield in 1989, and they instantly bond over their shared love of music.

But in 2015, the pair are now worlds apart with Daniel still in Yorkshire working as a music critic, while Alison is forging a career as an author in Sydney. When fate intervenes and causes their paths to cross again, will they rekindle their spark?

Here, Teresa, 39, and Jim, 47, give us their take...

What appealed to you about Mix Tape?

TERESA It was nostalgic reading through [the script]. It took me back to those initial feelings of falling in love for the first time and the butterflies. The characters were rich and nuanced.