Is new drama Life a Doctor Foster spin-off?

29 September 2020, 20:00

Life - Trailer | BBC Trailers

Is Belle from Life the same person as Anna from Doctor Foster? Here’s what we know about the spin off…

Get ready to cancel all your Tuesday evening plans for the next few weeks, because BBC is airing brand new drama Life.

Based on the lives of four characters living in a house of flats in Manchester, the synopsis reads: “As each of the four separate, relatable yet surprising strands unfold, they tell a larger story about what happens when we decide to step out of our own personal space and take a closer look into other people’s lives.

“LIFE explores love, loss, birth, death, the ordinary, the extraordinary and everything in between.”

But how is Life connected to Doctor Foster? And are the characters the same? Find out everything…

Life focusses on the lives of four people living in a house of flats. Picture: BBC

Is BBC’s Life a Doctor Foster spin-off?

Life is set in the same universe as Doctor Foster.

One of the characters which the series centres around is GP Gemma Foster's neighbour Anna, who is played by The Crown's Victoria Hamilton.

Doctor Foster fans will remember Anna left her ex-husband Neil after he cheated on her with Gemma (Suranne Jones).

Victoria Hamilton plays Belle in Life. Picture: BBC

In life, Anna has since changed her name to Belle and is trying to rebuild her life away from her ex.

But Neil is set to make an appearance later in the series, with Adam James reprising his role.

Writer Mike Bartlett has since explained why he decided to base a new series on Anna, saying: "In the last series of Doctor Foster, Anna split up with Neil and moved away.

“But I loved her as a character and suspected that was really the start of her story, rather than the end. In Life we find her living alone, under a different name, in a new city.

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"It's one of four story strands that make up the series, the other three being new, completely different interconnected stories that explore the epic and extraordinary in our everyday lives. It might share a universe with Doctor Foster but Life is a whole world of its own."