The Guest

Matthew Barry’s The Guest begins as a quietly offbeat tale of class-crossing camaraderie between the glamorous, successful and self-assured Fran (Eve Myles) and Ria (Gabrielle Creevy), her new cleaner, before slowly twisting into a cutting psychological drama suffused with unease, manipulation and a simmering menace that drives the suspense to its breaking point.

Over four sharply paced episodes, the BBC drama picks at the power dynamics woven into female friendships, particularly when affection curdles into something darker. Ria, played with quiet vulnerability by Creevy, is a woman caught in the undertow of other people’s ambitions for her. Her hesitance – met with the sort of hollow encouragement that sounds supportive but lands like pressure – will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt flattened by the weight of expectations.

Fran, meanwhile, is all sleek edges and calculated detachment. She glides through her minimalist home (a soft-lit haven of curated elegance) with the ease of someone who has worked hard to unshackle herself from the expectations of motherhood, marriage and emotional legibility. But beneath the surface, Myles lets flickers of control and calculation seep through – the warmth is always a few degrees too cool.

Barry’s script is lean and taut, rarely wasting a line, and the direction mirrors that tight control. There are no grand monologues or flashy reveals. Instead, tension accrues in loaded silences and clipped exchanges. The standout interrogation scene – all grey daylight and procedural fatigue – avoids melodrama entirely, grounding the story in a grimly believable realism. When the lies do start to fray, they do so subtly, not with a twist but with a slow, plausible unravel – the kind of slip anyone could make.

The Guest is less interested in plot than in psychology: in how trust can be weaponised, in the quiet violence of intimacy, and in what happens when power begins to shift. For all its style and polish, this is a story about emotional erosion. The question isn’t just what happened, but what was lost in the process of being seen, needed and possessed.

Christina Yang

The Guest is released on BBC iPlayer on 1^st September 2025.

Watch the trailer for The Guest here: