If you liked Fleabag, you’ll love Back To Life. If you liked The Missing, you’ll love Baptiste. These are the types of TV suggestions that swirl around, and they all have one thing in common, even if you might not realise it: they’re all produced by Two Brothers Pictures.

The two brothers in question are Harry and Jack Williams – BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated writers and producers – who set up the production company in 2014. Like their 2017 two-handed Liar, they’re back on writing duties for their latest offering, the psychological thriller Angela Black, both of which star Joanne Froggatt.
 

“Let’s all look in different directions – and no smiling!”

Froggatt plays the title character in what Harry calls a “Hitchcockian domestic noir thriller”. She appears to have it all: a home in London (an achievement in itself), a job volunteering at a dogs’ home, two sons and a hard-working husband, Oliver (Michiel Huisman,The Flight Attendant). Angela is also a victim of domestic abuse.

When private investigator Ed (Samuel Adewunmi, The Last Tree) comes calling, he reveals even more terrifying truths about Oliver. Will this new information give her the courage to leave him for good? And can she even trust Ed?
 

Like brother, like brother: Harry (left) and Jack (right) Williams 

The brothers show absolutely no signs of slowing down, as they’ll next be releasing the six-part BBC series The Tourist, starring Jamie Dornan. As Angela Black is sure to be another hit for the pair, find out where else you can watch the series you might not know they were responsible for. 

Back To Life

Find series 1 & 2 in Apps & Games > BBC iPlayer

The critically acclaimed series, created by and starring Daisy Haggard, follows Miri Matteson (Haggard) returning home to her small coastal town after an 18-year prison sentence. As she attempts to lead a “normal” life and comes to terms with a shock revelation, she still maintains her childlike curiosity and innocence – and she’s all the more charming because of it. The budding romance between her and her neighbour Billy (Adeel Akhtar) is wholesome and sweet, while her well-meaning, yet very quirky, parents (Geraldine James and Richard Durden) and her over-sharing parole officer (Jo Martin) make for great supporting characters.

In an interview, Haggard said, “I know Harry well and started pitching a series of ideas to Harry and Jack (many of which were awful!) until I finally stumbled on a good one! And then, I just got Harry really drunk and fed him lots of ham croquettes and he said yes!”

Fleabag

Find series 1 & 2 in Apps & Games > BBC iPlayer

The award-winning, fourth-wall-breaking triumph created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge is probably the main reason why you know the Williams’ brothers. They worked with Waller-Bridge to shape her one-woman stage show, first performed in 2013, into the television series. From pencil haircuts and the hot priest, to a headless sculpture and a guinea pig café, these are just some of the cultural references we have Fleabag to thank for.
 

Cheat

Find it in Apps & Games > ITV Hub

“It’s really exciting when you work with someone like Gaby Hull who wrote Cheat,” Jack told Variety. “He’d written comedy before and this is his first drama.”

Hull expertly switches genres for this psychological thriller featuring a face-off between sociology professor Dr Leah Dale (Katherine Kelly, Coronation Street) and her student Rose Vaughan (Molly Windsor, Traces). As her probationary period reaches its end, Leah accuses Rose of cheating on her dissertation, but is this one battle she’ll regret choosing?

Strangers

Find it in Apps & Games > ITV Hub

Harry and Jack co-wrote this series with newcomers Mark Denton and Johnny Stockwood. Professor Jonah Mulray (John Simm, Life On Mars) finds out that his wife is killed in a car crash in Hong Kong, but his fear of flying (as it turns out, Jack is also a bad flyer) means he’s terrified of leaving London. With fate forcing his hand, he must travel to Hong Kong to identify her body, but he quickly learns he has a lot more to be scared of than flying.

The Widow

Find it in Apps & Games > ITV Hub

Harry had just started dating a woman (now his fiancée) who was a widow. “She had written a blog about losing someone close to you which was very touching and moving. That area felt like something that was interesting to us. An emotional way in. We do thrillers. That’s what we’re more known for. And the idea of using that emotional jumping off point and blending in a conspiracy thriller felt like a really interesting marriage,” he said in an interview.

The Widow was born, and Kate Beckinsale, who hadn’t done TV for more than ten years, was brought onboard to play Georgia Wells. Three years after her husband Will was reported dead after a plane crash in the Congolese jungle, Georgia sees a man who looks like him on the news. She travels to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to find out the truth for herself.

The Missing

Find series 1 & 2 in Apps & Games > BBC iPlayer

If you’ve heard of Jack and Harry, you’ll usually see their names attached to The Missing, which has been likened to Scandi noirs The Killing and The Bridge. The series is led by James Nesbitt as a father who loses his five-year-old son Oliver on holiday in France. Eight years later, he’s still not been found. The series also introduces us to French detective Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo), who worked on the case and has a hunch Oliver is still alive.

The series was written around the time Jack’s daughter was born, so he understood as soon as she could move and walk just how easy it was for her to disappear. The drama was inspired by a documentary made by Jack and Harry’s father about a French detective, and by an “isolating” French exchange Harry went on, he told The Guardian. Harry and Jack went back to the same French town to write The Missing as a way to relate to how Oliver’s parents would be feeling in an “alien landscape”.

Series 2, which stars Keeley Hawes, David Morrissey, Roger Allam and Laura Fraser, flits between dual timelines, and focuses on a new British family abroad in Germany. Their missing daughter returns to them 11 years after she was abducted and kept in a basement.

Baptiste

Find series 1 & 2 in Apps & Games > BBC iPlayer

Co-written by Harry and Jack, Baptiste series 1 is a direct sequel to the events of The Missing, taking place two years after. Tchéky Karyo reprises his role as Baptiste, who specialises in tracking down people who have disappeared. The siblings always wanted to write a show that focused more on Baptiste, and in this spin-off series, he is recovering from a brain tumour operation. There’s no rest for the wicked as he is roped into tracking down a missing sex worker in Amsterdam, who is the niece of twitchy Englishman Edward Stratton (Tom Hollander, The Night Manager).

One Of Us

Find it in Apps & Games > Netflix

Harry and Jack were filming The Missing while they were writing One Of Us and the two series share similarities. Jack said in an interview, “The Missing piqued our interest in writing stories that were more character-based, taking crime elements but having a very personal way into them. That allowed us to do this, as One Of Us is a fairly dark story.”

In One Of Us, the youngest children of two families in Scotland get married and are then killed when they return from their honeymoon. Morality is at the heart of the series, as the killer turns up hours later, asking for help after a car wreck, and the grieving relatives are left wondering what they should do. Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply), Joe Dempsie (Skins) and Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad) star.

When is ITV’s Angela Black on TV?

Angela Black airs on ITV HD (CH 103) on Sundays at 9pm, with the first episode screening on 10 October. It is also available in Apps & Games > ITV Hub.

The six-part series will subsequently air every week until Sunday 14 November.