Break Clause

A breakup? In this economy? That’s the conundrum at the heart of Break Clause, Jess Bray’s painfully relatable small screen romcom. Having previously showcased her quirky comedic stylings via supporting roles, Lara Ricote takes centre stage for the first time, playing Lil, who ends up enmeshed with her cheating boyfriend, Ben (Samuel Bottomley), thanks to the real villain of the story: rent.

Lil and Ben’s romance begins at Leeds University. In their heady end-of-uni days the couple and their pals discuss their future plans not as aspirations but certainties. In a few years, Ben will be a professional writer. In 15, the couple will own a house with a dedicated office that no one uses, a way of living deemed a luxury for Gen-Z but the norm for their parents. Of course, it doesn’t work out like that. The pair move into a rental flat, which Lil deems palatial thanks to its colour-coded individual rooms, but her high is immediately crushed when Ben cheats. And yet, they can’t afford to part ways.

Infectiously ebullient, Ricote is a gem one can’t help but love, which makes Ben’s betrayal all the more poignant. Bottomley does a great job of portraying a man principally concerned with pondering whether he’s a good person despite his unfaithfulness. There are also welcome appearances from Saturday Night Live UK stars Jack Shep and Hammed Animashaun.

Though the jokes don’t always land, the series is, fundamentally, a social commentary on adulting in a late-stage capitalist hellscape. Lil is broke despite being a junior architect, a role that would surely provide a comfortable life some decades prior. Her boss presents himself as a friend to his employees while making them keenly aware of their subservience to him. Ben represents another grim reality for graduates: the apparently impossible feat of securing employment within creative fields, eventually relinquishing his body to medical testing for £800 a day (and becoming ill to darkly comedic effect).

But Bray never needs to spell out the characters’ dire socioeconomic circumstances because such conditions are acutely familiar to young people across the country. It speaks to contemporary social issues with grit and realism, but without veering into poverty porn.

And concurrently, it’s a tale of love and hope, the likes of which that cruel system could never extinguish. Sharply written, brilliantly acted, Break Clause encapsulates the cultural zeitgeist where so many others have failed.

Antonia Georgiou

Break Clause is released on Channel 4 on 1^st October 2026.

Watch the trailer for Break Clause here: