If you're lining up the top TV picks over the post-Christmas period, add The Road Trip to the top of your list.
Remember TV show The Flatshare, the adorable rom-com series about a young woman who finds herself sharing a room with night shift worker Leo – he uses the room in the day, her in the night – and the connection they find? If not, watch immediately. Anyway, The Road Trip and The Flatshare are both adapted from novels by bestselling chick-lit author Beth O'Leary.
Keira Knightley plays a vengeful spy in season 1 of the amazing Netflix TV series.
While the novel is set on a miserable UK motorway, the TV series is set in Spain (a wonderful sunshine bonus for all of us who want to escape the winter weather for a while), as two exes, one sister, one friend and one tagalong make their way to a destination wedding.
From The Road Trip, we can expect “a beguiling, modern story about love in your late twenties”, exploring love through a variety of prisms, including “a class-divided romance, a codependent bromance and a knotty but affectionate sisterly bond”.
In a recent interview with GLAMOUR, Emma opened up about why 2024 has been such a big year for rom-coms like The Road Trip. “I think we love rom-coms because it I think it gives us something to believe in,” she said. "It's a very universal subject, the love and relationships and how joyous, amazing, ecstatic that can be, but also a lot of the pain that comes with it, and also sometimes the mundane aspects of relationships.
“We have to be reminded that it's not all fireworks all the time. There is a beauty in familiarity and feeling comfortable and safe with someone. And I think you get to see that in rom-coms. You get to see your own circumstances reflected back to you.”
Here's everything we know so far about the upcoming TV show.
The Road Trip plot
According to the TV show's plot synopsis, "The Road Trip is a witty, contemporary, emotionally complex romantic comedy about giving love another shot. Can someone be the right person, just at the wrong time? And is there ever a future in returning to a past love?
"Addie and her sister Deb are on a road trip to a friend’s wedding in Spain when they are forced to offer a ride to Addie’s ex Dylan, his irrepressible best friend Marcus, and complete stranger Rodney. With nowhere to hide but a creaky campervan, the group must confront their buried history as secrets and revelations cause many a bump in the road."
It is set to be “filled with romance, wish fulfilment and stunning landscapes”, and what more could we want during the festive period when it's freezing and grey outside?
“Intercutting between the past and present, as the gang embark on their road trip across Spain to the wedding we flash back to Addie and Dylan’s intoxicating love affair two years earlier, which started as a heady holiday romance. Peppered with spiky conflict, alongside surreal escapades, the journey to the wedding proves to be an unforgettable ride.
"Everyone in the van has one question on their lips – what exactly was the real reason behind Addie and Dylan’s breakup? Who was to blame? And will their journey back to where they first fell in love bring a happy-ever-after?”
The Road Trip cast
Emma Appleton (Everything I Know About Love) will play Addie, Laurie Davidson (Cats) takes on the role of Dylan, Industry star David Jonsson is the self-assured Marcus and Isabella Laughland (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande) plays Addie’s sister Deb. Angus Imrie will also join the cast as the gang's mysterious but loveable ride-along Rodney. RuPaul's Drag Race UK runner-up Michael Marouli will also guest star.
The Road Trip release date
This one will be an addictive Christmas watch, with all six episodes dropping on Paramount+ on 26 December.
The Road Trip trailer
It's got it all – lingering stares, sexual tension, swoon-worthy exchanges, roadside dramas and parties.
