Series three, which returns later this month, similarly picks up seconds after those final moments, then jumps forward two years. There, the pair have had a messy split and are navigating life in each other’s orbits, all while their mutual friends are having weddings and babies.

Watching series three, I find myself fixating on the show’s relationship with “the meet-cute” – that classic romcom device of a dramatic yet adorable first interaction that signals something significant is on the horizon. We live in an age when apps are perceived to have de-romanticised dating, so people seem to ignore problems in their relationships if they happen to meet their partners the old-fashioned way, meaning in person. Tom and Jessie remind me of that. Their story is so good, so romcom-y, that they constantly overlook the fact that they’re just not that compatible.

I say all this to Matafeo; it’s something I’ve often discussed with friends, but rarely seen explored in pop culture. “Oh my God, yeah!” she says, with the enthusiasm that infects most of her answers. “I think that you put on a pedestal these moments of ‘Oh, but it’s so romantic!’ I have sadly – not sadly, maybe soberly – come to realise that romantic love is very, very different to long-lasting relationships.”

Take series three, where the subject of having kids proves to be a sticking point for the couple – one that is passive-aggressively raised by Tom and dismissed by Jessie, who simply doesn’t care enough to discuss it.

Rose Matafeo on Series 3 of Starstruck, Independent UK

Last year, I interviewed Matafeo’s Starstruck co-star Emma Sidi, who brought up a specific review of the show that had bothered the pair. As soon as I raise the topic, Matafeo knows what I’m talking about. “Oh, the body one?” Yep, the body one. To paraphrase, the reviewer praised the show for featuring two female leads who don’t look like the usual smooth-faced, stick-thin women you see on Instagram. The pair found it exhausting. What did their bodies have to do with it?

Comments like these, Matafeo has found, have become more frequent as the show is broadcast around the world. “You get people being like: ‘Yes, go girl! Great to see a mid-size gal on screen, showing her rolls!’ I’m like… look, I don’t want to… can we just not? I know that it’s a positive thing, but you’re politicising my body in a way that I don’t.”

Matafeo is fired up. I don’t blame her. If it was my body, I’d be equally enraged. “I accept that being a public figure and being in a thing that goes out across the world [means] you’re open to interpretation in what your performance is and what your show is. I’m totally down with that… It’s just always women. You are never saying, ‘Man, it’s so cool to see Bill Hader, or some guy who’s a “tall king”, with stubble or a stomach.’ No. Never. It’s always, always commenting on women’s bodies, when they’re not even speaking about them themselves.”

(Source: independent.co.uk)