--- title: "Forever Home" year: 2026 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/forever-home" fi1m_id: "forever-home" imdb_id: "tt39319550" tmdb_id: 334268 fi1m_score: 68 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-23T13:19:09.335633+00:00" updated: "2026-09-23T13:19:32.982669+00:00" region: "NZ" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Forever Home (2026) Created by Paul Gay · Drama, Mystery ## Identity Forever Home - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/forever-home - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** forever-home - **IMDb ID:** tt39319550 - **TMDB ID:** 334268 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt39319550/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/334268 **Fi1m score: 68** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Move in with him by all means, but do ask what the basement is for > Paul Gay’s six-part domestic mystery is brisk, likeable and knows exactly how to end an episode. It is less sure how to fill the middle of one, and it asks its cast to carry a good deal of thin plotting. ## Synopsis A woman in later life (Amy Nuttall) has waited a long time for a second chance, and she thinks she has found it in a divorced man (Douglas Henshall) with a large, quiet house and a settled routine. She moves in. The house is comfortable and the town is small enough that everyone has an opinion about the arrangement. Then the small things start: rooms he would rather she did not use, a first wife nobody talks about and a basement that stays locked. Over six episodes, created by Paul Gay, she begins to ask the questions a new partner is not supposed to ask. Denise Welch, Kevin Whately, Aimee Kelly, Lewis Cope, James Baxter, Jenny Walser and Shane Zaza make up the rest of the cast. ## Review There is a particular kind of British television mystery that exists to be watched two episodes at a time, on a weeknight, by people who will guess the twist and enjoy being right. *Forever Home* is one of those, and it is a better one than most. Paul Gay’s series runs to six episodes, and the first thing to say is that it moves. Nobody stands in a kitchen for ten minutes discussing their feelings. Something happens, someone lies about it, and we are on to the next thing. The set-up is old and reliable. A woman who has spent most of her life alone falls for a man who seems too settled to be trouble, and moves into his house. Amy Nuttall plays her without any of the wide-eyed business the part invites; she is a grown woman who has decided to be happy and is annoyed, rather than frightened, when the house will not let her. Douglas Henshall plays the man, and the performance is the reason the series works at all. He is warm and tired and reasonable, and every time we decided he was hiding something he did something kind, and every time we decided he was harmless he closed a door a shade too firmly. The question of what is in the basement is the engine, and Gay is disciplined about it. He does not show us early and he does not tease us with it every five minutes. It sits under the house, and the series lets us forget it for stretches, which is why it works when it comes back. The episode endings are the best thing here: each one is built to land on a single new fact, stated plainly, and each one did its job on us. We finished one episode at eleven at night and started the next, which we had not planned to do. We were also, once, properly horrified, and it was not by anything with blood in it. It was a scene in which a character explains, calmly and at length, why an earlier cruelty was for the best, and the series has the sense to hold on the face of the person listening rather than the person talking. That is good directing and better acting, and it made us trust the series more than its plot deserves. Because the plot does not, in the end, quite deserve it. The reviews so far have compared it to a Harlan Coben thriller, and that is fair in both directions. The twists arrive on schedule and most of them work in the moment, but two or three of them require people to have behaved for years in ways nobody behaves, and the series does not stop to make that credible. Some threads are introduced with ceremony and then dropped in a line of dialogue. The town is drawn in broad strokes, a gossip here, a suspicious neighbour there, and the supporting cast, Denise Welch and Kevin Whately among them, are given attitudes rather than lives. Whately in particular has the air of a man who could have done a great deal more with a page or two of his own. The look is clean and unfussy. The house is shot as a house, not a haunted one; the light is ordinary daylight and the corridors are just corridors, which is the right call, because the point is that nothing here should look wrong. We would have liked the interiors to tell us more about the man who has lived in them for twenty years, and they do not. The music is used sparingly and mostly to signal that an episode is about to end, which it does honestly. Against the standard of the form, it is a good example. Against the standard of what these two lead actors are capable of, it is a shame the writing did not stretch further. Nuttall and Henshall have a couple of scenes together, early on, where two lonely people are simply pleased to have found each other, and those scenes are better than anything the mystery gets round to. Watch it in pairs of episodes, with someone who likes to guess. You will both be right about half the time, and you will both keep going anyway. *Fi1m score 68, published 23 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Forever Home worth watching?** *Forever Home* is worth watching for anyone who enjoys a brisk British domestic mystery to be taken two episodes at a time, and we scored it 68. Douglas Henshall and Amy Nuttall are better than the plotting, which asks people to have behaved for years in ways nobody does. The episode endings are the strongest thing in it. **Where can I watch Forever Home in New Zealand?** *Forever Home* is not on any streaming or rental service in New Zealand at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How does Forever Home compare to Rebecca?** *Forever Home* shares its shape with [*Rebecca*](https://film.one/film/rebecca), a second wife in a house still ruled by the first, but Hitchcock's film is the more unsettling and the better made. Paul Gay's series is the lighter evening, quicker on its feet and easier to guess, with a lead pairing that deserves stronger writing. *Rebecca* stays with you; *Forever Home* is for the sofa and the next episode. **What should I watch after Forever Home?** After *Forever Home*, try [*Rebecca*](https://film.one/film/rebecca) (1940, Fi1m 85): The original second wife in a house that still belongs to the first. Then [*Gaslight*](https://film.one/film/gaslight) (1944, Fi1m 81): A husband, a wife and a locked room; the template for every doubt that follows; and [*Doctor Foster*](https://film.one/tv/doctor-foster) (2015, Fi1m 75): Suranne Jones finds out what her husband has been doing, and does not take it quietly. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Radio Times**, Jane Rackham (4/5): The critic finds the Channel 5 adaptation of Graham Norton's novel immensely watchable and full of intriguing twists despite a somewhat predictable start, praising the strong storytelling and cast performances. They single out the plot's surprising turns and moments of horror for praise while noting the broad character strokes typical of the channel's dramas. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/forever-home-5-review/) - **Digital Spy**, David Opie (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the twisty British mystery thriller entertaining and better than expected, closer to Harlan Coben-style thrillers than prestige TV, though it piles on contrivances and some threads fly by quickly. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a73712627/forever-home-review-channel-5/) - **Collider**, Amanda M. Castro (70/100, inferred): The adaptation of Graham Norton's novel into a six-part Channel 5 drama is described as a twisty story of domestic suspicion and mystery centered on a late-life relationship unraveling amid secrets about a previous wife and a hidden basement. The piece highlights the six-episode format's suitability for gradually building tension and the strong British TV cast led by Amy Nuttall and Douglas Henshall. [Read](https://collider.com/forever-home-graham-norton-channel-5-series/) ## Details - **Created by:** Paul Gay - **Creator:** Paul Gay - **Cast:** Douglas Henshall; Amy Nuttall; Denise Welch; Kevin Whately; Aimee Kelly; Lewis Cope; James Baxter; Jenny Walser - **Release (New Zealand):** 14 September 2026 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery ## Where to watch in New Zealand Not streaming, renting or buying in New Zealand at the last check. ## If you liked this - *Rebecca* (1940), Fi1m 85: The original second wife in a house that still belongs to the first. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rebecca.md) - *Gaslight* (1944), Fi1m 81: A husband, a wife and a locked room; the template for every doubt that follows. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/gaslight.md) - *Doctor Foster* (2015), Fi1m 75: Suranne Jones finds out what her husband has been doing, and does not take it quietly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-foster.md) - *The Stranger* (2020): Harlan Coben’s twist-a-week machinery, set in a town where everyone is lying. - *Deceived* (1991): Goldie Hawn’s perfect husband turns out to have a past; brisk, cheap and effective. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/forever-home