Temple and Hugh Skinner play ill-matched newlyweds in an adaptation of Anais Nin’s erotic classic Little Birds. They discuss restrictive underwear, sexual liberation and the worst thing about sex scenes

Ellen E Jones
Mon 3 Aug 2020 08.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 3 Aug 2020 08.56 BST
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In Little Birds, Sky Atlantic’s sultry new Anaïs Nin-inspired drama series, Juno Temple and Hugh Skinner play Lucy Savage and Hugo Cavendish-Smyth, newlyweds who met in the cultural maelstrom of 1950s Tangier. Wedded bliss, and even the marriage’s consummation, will have to wait, however, because Lucy is a naively virginal American debutante and Hugo is a closeted English lord involved in a dangerous romantic entanglement with an Anglo-Egyptian man. Both of them, in other words, are the repressed products of a confused time.
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The actors, by contrast, get along swimmingly. When we connect over Zoom to discuss the show, Temple and Skinner chime in on each others’ anecdotes and enjoy making each other laugh. Did they try to go method by avoiding contact with each other? “Are you kidding?” cackles Temple. “No, we hung out the entire time!” confirms Skinner merrily.

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There’s also no need to ask if they’re more laid-back than their well-starched characters; it’s all in the hair. Skinner, at home in London, is serving us mid-period Hugh Grant with a romcom-ready fringe; Temple, from her Los Angeles porch, is a naturally curly hippy chick with multiple necklaces and a ciggie on the go. They look relaxed and tanned – as if they’ve just come back from an extended break in Morocco, in fact. “I would definitely want to go and spend a week in the Tangier that we created,” says Temple. “I think it would be a hell of a good time.”