Gleeson and Riseborough have notably worked together many times, including Mark Romanek’s romantic tragedy Never Let Me Go, where they played a couple, Rodney and Chrissie, and James Marsh’s political thriller Shadow Dancer, where they were siblings Collette and Connor McVeigh.

“For the most part, it always makes me cringe when I hear that people have to do chemistry reads,” Gleeson says. “I understand why, but if you get two actors who care about the work in the same way, even if their methods of working are different, you will create chemistry because you’re both there for the same reason.”

It also pivots on the camera, Gleeson adds. The cinematographer (Max Smeds) and the directors (Kuosmanen, and Hong Khaou) are critical. “You can have as much chemistry as you like, but if it’s not captured properly, it will look like two dead fish in a plastic bag,” Gleeson says.

“Andrea is obviously just a stunning actor, she is as good as it gets,” Gleeson adds. “I never had any doubt that we would be able to tap into each other.

“And then once we were with Juho, Max and Hong, I just knew that they would be able to find the way to look at it properly so the audience would feel it.”

The tone of the series is complex. Your instinct is to assume it’s a British romantic comedy with a few dark twists, but the dark twists are very dark and, at times, the comedy seems in short supply. But to call it a “romantic tragedy” undersells one key detail: Alice and Jack are in love, and maybe just are meant to be together.

Are you trying to rip parts of me to bits, I ask Gleeson, as we discuss the series’ tougher scenes.

“Just your chest cavity, that’s the main one,” he replies, laughing. “Everybody who read the scripts said, we need to make this. Everybody saw the same thing in it, which was. I’ve experienced this, love has made me feel the best I’ve ever felt, and it has destroyed my life at times.”

Kuosmanen offers this insight: “I think there’s some melancholy and pain that is also there in this love story, and I think there is something comforting for the audience because it’s easy to relate. That’s the kind of love that I recognise, yes? It’s not a fairy tale.”

And when you think the emotional wrecking ball of the narrative will turn and swing back to the light, it seems to come crashing through another wall.

Love has made me feel the best I’ve ever felt, and it has destroyed my life at times.

Domhnall Gleeson

The result is a dark dance that is as genuinely affecting as it is compelling.

“That’s really vital to it,” Gleeson says. “I think there had to be moments in it where they’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to each other. If they had never known that love could be this big, they could have led very happy lives, slightly simpler lives, slightly more straightforward lives.

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“When you find out there’s a peak that’s higher, where the altitude can make you queasy ... but when you know that that’s there, waiting for you, I think there had to be moments where they’re just inadvertently destroying each other. They’re just meant to be together, and they’re not meant to be apart.”

Alice & Jack is on BBC First, Friday, 7.30pm.

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