Dominic West and Lily James star as father and daughter in first look at BBC’s The Pursuit of Love

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The trailer for the BBC’s lush new rom-com The Pursuit of Love has arrived.

The three-part series, an adaptation of the beloved novel by Nancy Mitford, is set to begin on Sunday May 9, to take over from Line of Duty.

And it couldn’t be more different, as the first look trailer promises romance, sex, comedy and stunning costumes.

The trailer opens with a voiceover saying: ‘It’s not sexual. It’s a meeting of minds’, with Lily James’s character Linda Radlett being interrogated with her cousin and best friend Fanny Logan, played by Emily Beecham.

‘So you aspire to being wicked and adulterous, do you?’, asks Fanny, with Linda replying: ‘No, I aspire to true love.’

Among the ladies’ suitors are Tony Kroesig (Freddie Fox), Alfred Wincham (Shazad Latif) and Fabrice de Sauveterre (Assaad Bouab), while the Radletts’ neighbour Lord Merlin – played by a dashing Andrew Scott – warns Linda: ‘Love is for grown ups, as you’ll discover one day.’

While love is the only thing on Linda’s mind, her father, Matthew – played by Dominic West – seems none too impressed, shouting: ‘An adulterous woman is the most disgusting thing there is.’

Set in Europe between the two World Wars, The Pursuit of Love follows the follows the charismatic and fearless Linda and Fanny as they go on the hunt for their ideal husbands.

Their friendship is put to the test as Fanny settles for a steady life and Linda decides to follow her heart, to increasingly wild and outrageous places. 

As social and political divisions split the nation, their diverging choices raise personal questions that remain intensely relevant today – questions about freedom, about love and sex, and the mystery of the human heart.

The mini-series also stars Emily Mortimer, Beattie Edmondson and Dolly Wells. 

While the big budget adaptation is set to gain interest due to the novel its based on and its stellar cast, it has already got people talking due to real life events.

Back in October 2020, co-stars Dominic, 51, and Lily, 32, were pictured getting close in Rome, after filming The Pursuit of Love together.

The pair were pictured riding on a scooter together around the city and looked very close, which caused eyebrows to raise as Dominic is married to Catherine FitzGerald. 

Dominic flew back from the Italian city a day later, and in a now notorious show of unity, he and Catherine kissed outside their Wiltshire home for the waiting press and left a note outside reading: ‘Our marriage is strong and we are very much still together. Thank you.’

Lily is now in a relationship with Queens of the Stone Age bassist Michael Shuman.

The Pursuit of Love begins at 9pm on May 9 on BBC One, with all three episodes dropping on iPlayer afterwards. 

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