The Double

"The Double" opens with a premise that could carry a whole film: two women, Lisa and Zoe, who could be the same person at a glance. Zoe is the version of Lisa who never learned the rules. She is out of the common rut entirely, while Lisa stays rooted in convention, and when the two of them meet, the resemblance stops being a curiosity and starts being a problem. One face, two lives, and the trouble lives in the space between them. It is a collision of two lives that look identical on paper and could not be more different underneath.

Both women set their sights on Peter Milton, a young stockbroker. One is virginal and good. The other is a different creature entirely, all confidence and seduction, and used to getting what she wants. The contest for his affections is far from mundane, and it pulls them into each other's worlds. The fallout reshapes both their lives in ways neither of them saw coming, and by the end it is hard to say which of them came off worse. Identity here is a weapon and a trap at once.

Piers Haggard wrote it, Mary McMurray directed. Camilla Power takes both parts, which asks an actor to play the same face two ways and keep them distinct; she does. Jason Flemyng plays Peter Milton. Around them: Lalor Roddy as John Amber Powell, Michelle Newell as Andrea Cleasant, Helen Blatch as Annabel, Frances Jeater as Rebecca Horowitz, Eileen Davies as Marge, Navin Chowdhry as Amal, Victoria Duarri as Diana and Oliver Young as Steve Moss. It opened the season on 3 January 1997.

The episode works by staying close to one idea and trusting it: the burden of resembling someone else, and the choices that resemblance forces. The chaos it sets off is handled with a steady hand. The mystery here is identity itself, and that turns out to be plenty.