Love Rat is a gripping new Channel 5 drama that follows a divorced woman who gets robbed of her life savings during a whirlwind holiday romance.
Sally Lindsay and Neil Morrissey play a newly divorced Emma and Pete, who are navigating the harsh reality of dividing up the life they've built together. However, Emma's life gets even more complicated when she goes on her first solo holiday to Cyprus, only to meet handsome hotel owner Nico.
Here is everything you need to know about Love Rat episode 1...
The first episode of Love Rat opens with Emma unpacking in her new home, having just separated from her husband, Pete. Pete arrives at her door bringing round a giant soft toy koala, which he says is Emma's. She argues that he is the one who won the toy on the day they got engaged, and the pair start to reminisce about their shared past.
Emma tells Pete she is going to Cyprus on holiday, somewhere they go as a family every year. However, she tells Pete that she is staying in a different hotel from the usual one, as it would 'feel weird' to go back to the place they visited together.
Once there, it is clear that while Emma is happy to be away and in the sunshine, she isn't used to being on her own. She goes to the bar in the hotel with her book and is pleasantly surprised to see a handsome man sitting at the bar, who is also reading Wuthering Heights, just like her.
She asks the woman behind the bar who he is and she says that he is her boss, the man who owns the hotel.
That evening at dinner, Emma bumps into the hotel owner again and he introduces himself as Nico Angeli and hands her one of his business cards. Emma is flattered by his attention and goes back to her room to search his website from the card and reads all about him being a hotel businessman.
The next morning the pair bump into one another again in the restaurant and they get chatting, Nico invites Emma on his boat to see some of the hidden beaches nearby and she tells him he really doesn't have to do that. Nico insists and the pair have a great morning on the boat, flirting and seeing the sights, before going for lunch where Nico gets Emma to open up about her failed marriage.
The next evening Nico takes Emma dancing and they have a great time, but on the way home she asks him why he is interested in her. Nico replies that he likes the way he feels when he is with her and showers her with compliments before they kiss and spend the night together.
The following morning, Emma is still asleep as Nico sneaks out of her room, leaving a note to say he has gone to call his son, Theo. When they catch up later, he blindfolds her in a taxi and tells her he has a surprise. He takes her to an amazing villa overlooking the beach and tells her that he is buying it and wants her to leave her life in England behind and move in with him.
Emma is initially shocked but pleased and before long finds herself agreeing. She then calls her grown-up daughter, Suzie, to tell her the news and she is horrified that her mum is moving abroad for a holiday fling and worries about the money she promised her from the house sale at home. Emma promises that the deposit for the salon is still hers but they argue and Suzie hangs up.
Next Emma calls Pete and breaks the news that she has met someone else and is moving to Cyprus. He is stunned and sad but pretends to be happy for his ex.
Nico wines and dines Emma, treating her to expensive things in the shops and making her feel like a million dollars. Later that evening he arrives late to dinner and tells her that the purchase of their villa is due to go through that Friday, but he has a cashflow problem and the money from his divorce won't reach his account until the following week.
Emma feels sorry for him and asks how much money he needs, which he admits is €225,000. She offers to lend him the money and he says no, but she insists and calls the bank to transfer the cash behind his back. However, that evening he fails to arrive at the restaurant, where Emma is waiting with the property details of the villa wrapped up in a bow, excited to tell him she has given him the money he needs.
Despite Emma calling him, Nico fails to pick up and she gets worried, going home to the hotel and panicking. However, he eventually turns up drunk and appolgises, and when she tells him she has given him the money for the villa, he tells her he loves her and will put her name on the deeds of the villa, which leaves her thrilled.
The whirlwind continues when the pair get the keys to their new home, with the estate agent congratulating them on their new home together. Emma is surprised to see that the sellers have left their furniture, but Nico says they have moved to the US and didn't want to take it with them.
The next morning, Emma wakes in her perfect new home and idyllic life to find a strange man standing in her bedroom, shortly followed by a woman. They both tell her that this is their home and that her Airbnb time has finished and ask her to leave.
At first, Emma is sure there has been a mistake and explains that she has just bought the property with her boyfriend, but soon the penny drops when Nico is nowhere to be found and his number has been cut off.
In shock, Emma goes back to the hotel to find Nico, but no one there knows who he is and even the woman from the bar on the first day says she doesn't know who Emma is talking about. When Theo comes into reception, Emma asks where his daddy is, but it turns out the child belongs to the woman from the bar and Nico isn't his father!
Realising she has been well and truly tricked, Emma races to the bank where she asks them to get her money back. But Nico has cleared all the cash out of his account and closed it, meaning Emma has no way of getting it back. The woman working at the bank suggests she goes to the police, but when Emma gets hysterical as the enormity of what has happened hits her, she is arrested and taken off in a police car.
Love Rat airs on four consecutive nights at 9pm on Channel 5 from Monday, March 11 to Thursday, March 14, 2024.
