TRUE LOVE: Romance anthology series starring Alexander Siddig now streaming

Good news, Sidsters! True Love, the 2012 romance anthology series from BBC, is finally available in the United States! All five episodes are now streaming and available on demand from NBCUniversal for free.

Siddig stars opposite Jane Horrocks in episode 4 titled “Sandra”. Here’s the official description:

Sandra (Jane Horrocks) is facing the fact that her marriage has become stale over the years – when her youngest child leaves home she realises that her husband have little to say to one another, and besides this, he’s also having an affair. Then she meets someone who couldn’t be more different from her, but somehow makes her feel alive again – can she throw everything up for this younger man?

In honor of True Love coming to the U.S., Siddig and I did a quick Q&A about working on the series.

Mel: True Love is finally available in the U.S., just in time for Valentine’s Day. What do you remember about filming your episode?

Siddig: I remember it was the first time that I improvised anything on screen, not just a word here or there but the whole scene. We had one-line descriptions for the scenes, like, “they meet and walk to a cafe where he tells her his story”, the rest we just made up on the spot. It must have been tricky for the editor because if we shot a second take, there was no way we’d be able to remember the exact lines – often we’d just do a different scene entirely. It needed a lot of research because we had to be prepared to answer personal questions about ourselves or discuss events from our point of view without any idea what those questions might be. We had to dive pretty deep into the characters.

Mel: Wow, I didn’t realize so much of it was improvised. You’d have to get in sync with your scene partner fast for that to work. What do you remember about working with Jane Horrocks?

Siddig: Jane Horrocks is a delightful, warm lady (tiny!). A really honest performer and it was a genuine pleasure working with her. She loved talking about her children and the mundanities of day to day life, driving the kids to school and what homework they were doing and stuff.

True Love is now available to watch free in the U.S. via NBCUniversal streaming apps (NBC, USA, E!, Bravo, etc.) and on demand.