Television series
Cheat
Cheat is a tight three-part ITV thriller built on the friction between two clever, stubborn women — a professor and the student she accuses of plagiarism. What starts as a tidy academic dispute curdles fast into something nastier, each escalation more calculated than the last. It's brisk, glossy, unashamedly pulpy telly: less interested in ethics than in watching two people refuse to lose.
If you liked this
Doctor Foster2015
Suranne Jones turns a betrayal into a forensic, escalating campaign of revenge that gets more delicious and more alarming with every episode. Same appetite for watching someone refuse to back down.
But It tips fully into soap-opera melodrama by the end — if you want restraint, this isn't it.
Liar2017
A single disputed night between two credible, articulate people spirals into a genuinely gripping he-said-she-said standoff with nobody willing to yield an inch.
But The plotting gets increasingly implausible, especially if you watch beyond series one.
Apple Tree Yard2017
A composed professional woman's one bad decision unravels into criminal consequence, with real interest in how intelligent people justify themselves under pressure.
But Slower and more courtroom-focused than Cheat — this simmers rather than sprints.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Diabolique1955
Same architecture as Cheat: two intelligent women, one accusation, and a plan that curdles the moment pride enters the equation. This is where that particular kind of story was perfected, decades before television caught up.
The original template for two women locked in an escalating scheme where neither will concede ground, shot in gorgeous, merciless black and white by Clouzot at his nastiest.
But It's nearly seventy years old, subtitled, and moves at a deliberate, old-fashioned pace by modern thriller standards.
More like this (8)
The Fall2013
Two formidable women, one hunting the other, each utterly convinced of her own righteousness. The same slow-burning, intelligence-versus-intelligence tension, just darker and more procedural.
But It's a serial-killer thriller at heart, colder and more graphic than anything in Cheat.
Killing Eve2018
An obsessive professional rivalry between two brilliant women that blurs into something far more personal and destabilising — the same engine, dressed in espionage glamour.
But Much more stylised and blackly comic; if you wanted grounded realism, this swerves hard away from it.
Behind Her Eyes2021
A slippery power struggle between two women where you're never quite sure who's manipulating whom, told through gleefully unreliable narration.
But The late supernatural swerve will infuriate anyone hoping this stays psychologically grounded throughout.
Vigil2021no page yet
Another tense, glossy ITV thriller with strong performances and real institutional stakes, if you want more of that specific brand of Sunday-night dread.
But It trades the intimate two-hander for a submarine-set ensemble procedural — a genuinely different shape of story.
Broadchurch2013
A masterclass in British ensemble drama examining how suspicion and accusation corrode a community, with the same moral seriousness under the twists.
But It's a much slower burn, more concerned with grief than with the pleasures of a clever standoff.
Trust Me2017no page yet
An ordinary person crosses one ethical line and can't stop lying to cover it, with mounting dread as the deception compounds.
But It's a solo unraveling rather than a duel between equals — less confrontation, more slow-motion panic.
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal2021
Cheat imagines what happens when academic dishonesty spirals into personal catastrophe; this shows you the real version, where cheating the system is often quietly, infuriatingly rewarded rather than punished.
A slick Netflix documentary using real wiretap audio and dramatised reenactments to unpick an actual academic-fraud scandal, complete with wealthy parents scheming their kids into elite universities.
But No fictional catharsis here — it's messier, sadder, and ends the way real institutional corruption usually does: with a lot of people getting away with it.
The Chair2021no page yet
Same battlefield — a university where power, pride and public accusation collide — but run through farce instead of menace. Watching the engine of Cheat rebuilt for laughs makes both shows sharper.
Sandra Oh as a university department head navigating institutional politics, student outrage and her own compromises, played with sharp comic timing and real affection for the chaos of academia.
But It's a comedy-drama, not a thriller — the stakes are careers and reputations, not the escalating dread Cheat trades in.
People
Cast
Production
- Harry WilliamsExecutive Producer
- Jack WilliamsExecutive Producer