Love Soup. Alice Chenery (Tamsin Greig). Copyright: BBC
Love Soup

Love Soup

  • TV comedy drama
  • BBC One
  • 2005 - 2008
  • 18 episodes (2 series)

Romantic comedy drama starring Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery, a woman trying to find her true love. Also features Sheridan Smith, Montserrat Lombard, Michael Landes, Trudie Styler, Brian Protheroe and more.

Character guide

Love Soup. Alice Chenery (Tamsin Greig). Copyright: BBC

Alice Chenery

Played by: Tamsin Greig

A modern woman with old-fashioned values, Alice is constantly trying to find her perfect love. However, as of yet, she has failed to find the right man.

In the first series, Alice is trying to sell her flat in Brighton while working on a perfume company concession in a London department store. By the second series, Alice has managed to move to London, but is still alone.

Love Soup. Cleo Martin (Sheridan Smith). Copyright: BBC

Cleo Martin

Played by: Sheridan Smith

One of Alice's co-workers, Cleo is able to find several partners. However, most of them tend to last only a week.

Her past exploits have involved losing half of her shoes and getting her bag mixed up with Alice's - resulting in Alice taking a gun to a political gathering. Cleo often tries to help Alice find her own love.

Love Soup. Milly Russell (Montserrat Lombard). Copyright: BBC

Milly Russell

Milly is Alice's other assistant. Much like Cleo, she can never keep a boyfriend for long, and also tries to help Alice in find a lover.

Milly's past boyfriends have included a shadow, and a man who looks almost exactly like Jesus Christ!

Love Soup. Gil Raymond (Michael Landes). Copyright: BBC

Gil Raymond (Series 1)

Comedy writer.   Played by: Michael Landes

A comedy writer from the United States of America. When Gil arrives in Britain, he discovers that his girlfriend is seeing another man. He also accidentally causes his new next door neighbours to split up, and as a result must constantly worry about the intentions of Irene Andrews. Gil's main work is writing a romantic comedy TV series called Love Soup.

SPOILER: In series two, it is revealed that Gil died of a heart attack.

Irene Andrews (Series 1)

Played by: Trudie Styler

Irene was Gil's next door neighbour. She and her husband Bob were happily married until Gil accidentally exposed Bob's affair with a prostitute.

With Irene now being single, Gil was constantly worried that she may well be trying to attract him.

Bob Andrews (Series 1)

Played by: Brian Protheroe

Bob is Irene's husband, or he was until his wife discovered that he had been seeing a prostitute. At this point he was thrown out of the house, along with his wheelchair-bound mother whom Irene had little time for.

In later episodes of the first series, Bob tried to win back Irene's affections.

Lloyd Drewitt

TV Producer.   Played by: Owen Brenman

Lloyd is Gil's boss. He works as a television producer and eventually the two become friends. Lloyd is in charge of the Love Soup project, which is a series of six different romantic comedies, of which Gil is writing one episode.

SPOILER: Lloyd also appears in series two to give Alice the sad news about Gil's death. Alice and Lloyd later become friends.

Douglas McVitie (Series 2)

Comedy writer.   Played by: Mark Heap

Douglas was a friend of Gil's. He meets Caroline in series two and they start a relationship. However, when Caroline begins to suspect that their relationship is not working, she calls it off... and at this point Douglas begins to deteriorate.

Fae Maddison (Series 2)

Actress.   Played by: Amelia Curtis

Fae is a respected actress who takes Caroline as a lodger after she helps her overcome some difficulties with a troublesome date. Her behaviour is a constant source of interest to Caroline.

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