Jez Butterworth’s new television drama, Mammals, is based on a real story. A friend and his pregnant wife had gone away for their wedding anniversary. “While they were on holiday she had a miscarriage. He was holding her phone and a message came through from a man she was having an affair with,” Butterworth explains.
It sparked an idea about double standards. “If a woman has an affair it is considered an abomination. If a man does it it’s more acceptable,” says Butterworth, the screenwriter and playwright best known for Jerusalem, his multi-award-winning play about being English. “It’s profoundly unfair. There is a good chance monogamy is an invention by men to control the libido of women. They cannot stand the idea that
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