Control freak and possibly the cleanest character in the history of television. Milly's journey through This Life is uncomfortable and bumpy ride, punctuated by bystanders hurling accusations of 'boring' at her. Poor Milly. She really is a good egg - she just isn't very good to Egg. Who can blame her, after five years of going out with him, for succumbing to her boss's charms and having a fling with him?

Well actually, thousands blame her. O'Donnell is a smug, middle-aged sod whose hair is slipping off his head like a duvet at night - and we're damn sure he's used to playing away from home. But he is terribly charming, supportive of his younger staff, and dangles promotion prospects in front of Milly long before he begins to dangle anything else.

There was a horrible inevitability about the Fall of Milly. She was just too good in the beginning. She laughed with Anna, had a lot of sex with Egg, was conscientious at work, flossed her teeth incessantly, stuck rigidly to her food combining and tidied her desk every day. And then Egg gave up his job and the rot set in. Milly and Egg's relationship, the one fixed point in an unpredictable world, began to fall apart. Not immediately, but gradually - and in a chillingly realistic depiction of what can happen to a couple who were madly in love all through university, who still love each other, but who are caught on the hop when something unexpected comes between them. Something called Real Life.

And so Milly, a product of the Asian work ethic, sought even more solace in her work. She could be in control there; she knew what to do. Anyway, what was the point in going home? Egg had lost his sex drive along with his self-esteem.

Poor Milly. She wasn't in control at all. O'Donnell was manipulating her all along, slowly luring her into his hairy-shouldered embrace. And just when Milly was beginning to Have Doubts, along came the terribly nice Rachel with her disingenuous smile and her willingness to please. Rightly or wrongly, Milly detected something else about Rachel: a fierce competitiveness, a strong manipulative streak, and the beginnings of a slow but steady campaign to usurp her.

From the outset, Milly can't stand Rachel. Then she can't stand herself for not standing Rachel and resorts to therapy to try to sort out why she is attracted to O'Donnell, repelled by Rachel - and increasingly ambivalent towards Egg.

When Egg begins to find his feet again and to work all hours at the cafœ, he and Milly drift further apart - and Milly, also working all hours, drifts into O'Donnell's arms. But she doesn't seem to derive much pleasure from the relationship (mind you, who would?) and over-reacts about everything from leaving her watch in his office to What Rachel Saw at The Photocopier. Her frown-lines increase, her tense hair-flicking habit gets tenser, her visits per episode to her shrink multiply by the minute - and The Baths begin. Milly is a mess. Then Anna finds out about O'Donnell and her greatest friendship begins to crumble.

Milly sees the light when she sees O'Donnell with his wife: he's been leading her up the garden path about their 'separation'. Distraught, furious and bitterly disappointed (principally with herself), she downs an entire bottle of vodka, suffers in silence and then resolves to rebuild her relationship with Egg. But it's too late. Rachel knows about O'Donnell. And Rachel is going to tell...