'Masterpiece' BBC drama is keeping viewers up at night

It's been nearly ten years since Doctor Foster exploded onto BBC One - but fans are still raving that the tense thriller is one of the most gripping dramas the channel has ever produced. Back in 2015, the five-part series pulled in a whopping 10 million viewers, scored an impressive 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and had the entire country talking. At the heart of it was Suranne Jones, already a household name, and a then-rising Jodie Comer, who went on to become a global star with Killing Eve.

Together, they turned Doctor Foster into must-see viewing - the kind of drama that had the whole country tuning in live each week. The plot centred on Gemma Foster, a respected GP whose life collapsed when she discovered her husband Simon, played by Bertie Carvel, was cheating with local woman Kate. The betrayal set Gemma on a course of revenge that turned darker with every episode, leaving viewers unable to switch off.

Critics went wild. The Guardian called it "a brilliant and gripping portrait of a marriage." The Times hailed Suranne as "one of the most emotionally uninhibited actresses in television." The Independent warned that audiences "probably lost a bit of sleep after watching this".

Fans agreed. One viewer wrote online: "Over-the-top and intense, it's a great show to lose yourself in." One gushed: "Dr. Foster unfolds into a fascinating, unpredictable woman. She's positively wild!" Another fan admitted: "The first season [was] a binge-worthy program, full of surprises and not at all predictable. You get hooked on the cause and really feel for the characters."

The acclaim carried into a second season in 2017, and its legacy even spawned a spin-off in 2020 called Life, starring Victoria Hamilton.

But creator Mark Bartlett later shut down hopes of a third outing. He told The Sun: "We're definitely done and we're all doing - certainly they are doing - amazing things.

Each of the two series feels like two different novels to me, so it's not like there's anything incomplete. It would only come back if we had the right story to tell in the right way - and I don't have a burning desire to find that story."

For Suranne, the secret of the show's success was its terrifying relatability. Speaking to Marie Claire, she explained: "Maybe it's the fear of knowing that could actually happen to you in real life.

"It's not a thriller, it's not a murder, it's something that feels more tangible. A lot of people have experienced a relationship betrayal.

"It could also be the fear that your beautiful, happy marriage could break down at any point when someone else comes along and taps into things that people can't control."

Ten years later, Doctor Foster is still being hailed as a "masterpiece" by critics and viewers alike. It's a drama hailed so intense that it kept audiences up at night, and one that still has fans begging for more.