General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

You & Me

You & Me is a three-part British relationship drama created and written by Jamie Davis, released as a full boxset on the ITVX streaming service on 23 February 2023. It follows three Londoners, Ben, Emma, and Jess, whose lives are reshaped by tragedy, and is told across two separate timelines, the "Then" and the "Now", as a chance encounter brings their stories together.¹

Key fact	Detail
Format	3 x 60-minute episodes, released as a boxset on ITVX on 23 February 2023¹
Creator	Jamie Davis, in his first screenwriting commission²
Lead cast	Harry Lawtey as Ben, Jessica Barden as Emma, Sophia Brown as Jess, with Julie Hesmondhalgh as Ben's mother Linda¹
Director	Tom Vaughan (Doctor Foster, Press, Screw)¹
Executive producers	Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alexander Lamb for Happy Prince, with Russell T Davies¹
Structure	Two timelines across three episodes, revealing the tragedies that shaped Ben, Emma, and Jess chapter by chapter¹
Reception	IMDb 6.8/10 from 964 ratings; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 60% from 4 reviews³^•⁴

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The series opens as a romantic comedy before shifting into a drama about grief. Ben (Harry Lawtey) is a young northerner working as a journalist in London who meets Jess (Sophia Brown) when the two of them miss the same bus; it is love at first sight and things move quickly. Catastrophe then strikes on what should be the happiest day of his life, the day he becomes a father: Jess dies in the opening scenes, leaving Ben a single parent to twins, a boy named Jack and a girl named Poppy.¹^•⁵^•⁶

Some years later Ben meets Emma (Jessica Barden), a rising theater star who hides her own tragedy behind her success, when he interviews her for a column about rising stars. The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson described the show as more David Nicholls' One Day than Notting Hill, a drama about whether hearts can survive what life throws at them, with the two timelines crossing roughly eight years.⁷

The three episodes are titled "How We Used to Be", "Who's Emma?", and "How Does The Story End?", and all were released on 23 February 2023.⁸ In the final episode, as Emma deliberates whether to go through with her wedding, she and Ben must weigh what it would take to put their pasts to rest.⁸

Production

ITV commissioned the series on 17 March 2021, written by screenwriting newcomer Jamie Davis and produced by Dominic Treadwell-Collins' ITV Studios label Happy Prince; it was both Davis's first screenwriting commission and the new company's first commission.² Russell T Davies, whose earlier collaboration with Treadwell-Collins on A Very English Scandal had been recognized at the Baftas, Rose D'Or, Golden Globes, and Emmy Awards, joined as executive producer, saying of Davis's script that he had "read 100s of scripts, but this one shone out from the rest".²

Filming and setting. The series began filming on location in South East London in the summer of 2022, with locations including Telegraph Hill, Brockwell Lido, and a day of filming with Deptford High Street closed.⁹^•¹⁰ Davis said the south London setting was deliberate: a London "we recognise and live and love in every day", and the only place where three people from such different parts of the world could come together.¹⁰ Executive producer Alexander Lamb connected the show's focus on grief to the period in which it was made, when the UK was moving in and out of Covid lockdown.¹¹

BAFTA-winning director Tom Vaughan directed, Michael Ray produced, and the series was overseen by ITV's Head of Drama Polly Hill.¹

Cast

Harry Lawtey, known for Industry, plays Ben; Jessica Barden (*The End of the F***ing World*) plays Emma; and Sophia Brown (The Witcher: Blood Origin, Giri/Haji) plays Jess. Julie Hesmondhalgh plays Ben's mother Linda, Andi Osho plays Jess's mother Pam, Janie Dee plays Emma's mother Hannah, and Lily Newmark plays Joey, Emma's sister. Genesis Lynea plays Dee, Clarence Smith plays Charlie, and Dominic Mafham plays Jeremy.¹^•¹²

Reception

Critical response was divided. The Guardian gave the first episode 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "sharp, original" and praising Lawtey as "a winning lead" and Hesmondhalgh as "a sage and soothing presence", while noting a tendency toward staginess and long poetic speeches.⁷ The Independent's Nick Hilton gave 2 out of 5, criticizing the sentimentality as unearned, though he judged Lawtey "a fine actor" who depicts the shadow of loss confidently.⁵ The London Evening Standard's Lisa McLoughlin gave 3 out of 5, finding Ben and Jess's love story vibrant but Emma's character rushed.¹³ A NationalWorld review was harsher still, calling the series superficial and emotionally manipulative while crediting Lawtey's understated performance.¹⁴ On Rotten Tomatoes the miniseries holds a Tomatometer of 60% from 4 reviews.⁴ On IMDb the series scores 6.8/10 from 964 ratings, with the third episode rated highest at 7.8.³

Distribution and international reach

The series was produced in association with, and distributed by, ITV Studios.¹ ITV's 2022 annual report cited You & Me, from Happy Prince, among the slate delivered by its new talent-deal labels.¹⁵ It was screened at MIPCOM in Cannes before its UK premiere.¹⁶ At the London TV Screenings, the national public broadcasters of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland (SVT, NRK, YLE, DR, and RUV) jointly acquired it as part of a package of ITV Studios drama.¹⁷ It has also aired on ARTE in France and Germany, on Portugal's RTP as Tu e Eu, and was released on DVD in Australia by Viavision in 2024.¹⁸^•¹⁹^•²⁰

Possible continuation

Ben, Jess, and Emma's story is complete, but Happy Prince said it was working on another series with the same concept of love in London, moving backwards and forwards in time with new characters and a new story; Lamb separately stated that a series 2 was being planned with Davis.¹⁰^•¹¹ As of later listings the show is recorded as ended after its single season.⁸^•¹²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026