‘Doctor Foster’ Ending Could Have Been Very Different, Writer Reveals

**WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS**

As the dust settles on the gripping finale to series 2 of ‘Doctor Foster’, the show’s writer has revealed that it could have ended very differently indeed for Gemma Foster and her family.

Tuesday night’s final episode concluded with Gemma (Suranne Jones) facing a future alone when her son Tom disappears after finally having enough of his estranged parent’s bitter ongoing feud.

But the show’s writer, Mike Bartlett, says the original ending was a lot less bleak.

He told Radiotimes.com:: “The ending of the show unfolded as I was writing it.

“In the plan he’s in the car at the end. They go back to her house and get a new kitchen and try to build a life.

“It was only when I went to write that she goes back to the car and he’s not there. But that happened very organically from what he has been through, I think.

“Tom’s not a little child any more, he’s going to make his own choices. And so hopefully it’s one of those ones which you don’t see coming but when it happens you look over the whole series and realise this has been coming the whole time.”

Mike added that he never had a “masterplan” for the characters, revealing he wanted to stay in the “present” with the show.

“It’s not a show where you are seeding lots of things for some future thing,” he said. “And that’s never been the point of it.”

“Part of the reason I don’t massively do a big masterplan for it is that no one in the show has that. And it’s all about the present moment and what it feels like to go through this.”

Last week, Mike revealed that he had based the series on the 2.500-year-old Greek tragedy, ‘Medea’.

The story, first produced in 431 BC, follows a wife who seeks violent revenge for her husband’s infidelity.

Fans familiar with the ‘Medea’ story knew it ended with the mother killing her son - leading many to believe the same fate awaited Tom.

Speculation has also been rife that a third series could be in the works, given the huge popularity of the BBC drama, but Mike has admitted he is yet to put pen to paper.

Speaking to The Sun, he said: “No, I haven’t written a third series.

“There’s a lot of trust that we’d only do more if there’s a story and a reason. So there’s no pressure to do more. We all just focus on the one we’re doing and that’s a massive amount of work for everybody.”