Paula is back on iPlayer, and all three episodes are available to binge in one run. Denise Gough leads the three-part Irish drama as Paula Denny, a chemistry teacher whose choices push the story into obsession and revenge.
Denise Gough and Paula Denny
2017 is when the series first aired on RTÉ One in Ireland before reaching the side of the rollout. That history gives this return a second life rather than a simple re-run: viewers who missed it the first time can now take it straight through without waiting for weekly drops.
Denise Gough’s own view of the role is the sharpest part of the appeal. She told Stylist, “I’ve been in [TV shows] with women getting mutilated and the guy who’s doing the killing, although unlikeable, is hot.” She added, “I wanted to be part of a similar type of thing but with a woman in that position.”
James Moorcroft and Philip
Paula Denny has an affair with married PE teacher Philip, played by Edward MacLiam, then has a one-night stand with handyman James Moorcroft, played by Tom Hughes. When Paula rejects the idea of anything further, James moves into obsession and revenge, and the series turns on murder, an arson attack and mental torture.
That is the complication inside the premise: Paula is being presented as a “brilliant, superb psychological thriller,” yet Gough says Paula herself is unlikeable. Her third quote makes the point even more directly: “The first reaction is always ‘she’s not very likeable’, and isn’t that funny; you wouldn’t say that about Jamie Dornan?”
iPlayer Tonight
All three episodes being available at once is the practical change for viewers now. Instead of watching the story unfold in instalments, anyone drawn to psychological thrillers can move from the affair to the fallout in a single sitting, which suits a series built on escalation and dread.
The return also gives the title a cleaner pitch on iPlayer: it is no longer just a 2017 Irish drama with a narrow first run, but a full binge option led by Denise Gough and Tom Hughes. If you want the shortest route into the story, start with the first episode and keep going — the platform has already done the waiting for you.
