Telly Talk: Mind the gap
Some things are cyclical. The seasons, people’s belief in the economy, and sitcom premises. Anyone of a certain age who hears the concept of Gold’s first ever original programming – a gentleman and a lady fall madly in love despite a 20 year age gap, and humour is derided from the responses of their families – could experience the same deja vu I’m in the middle of. Remember May To December that ran for six series starring Anton Rogers and two separate actresses playing his love interest? It would seem that the series lasted longer than the casting, and yet Gold, a channel specifically targetting those who like to remember programmes from mostly the ‘80s and ‘90s, has decided this should mark their first foray into newly devised telly. Anyone else see a hiccup on the horizon?
“This level of lust tends to take up residence on BBC3”
The pilfering of concepts to one side, You, Me & Them stars Anthony Head, much loved ever since he first knocked on some filly’s door and asked to borrow a cup of coffee back in the 1980s. Alongside him is Eve Myles, her of Torchwood, Doctor Who and suchlike. Combine that with Head’s Buffy background and part of me is just itching for a monster to jump out of the ironing cupboard. The closest thing we’ll get though is Lindsay Duncan as Head’s ex-wife who has taken up residency next door and appears behind a set of binoculars gazing through the hedgerow as Myles’ family arrive to meet the new older boyfriend for the first time. To be honest, Head and Myles are a lot more ‘grabby’ of each other than Anton was with his young lady. They are both attractive people and apparently in love, but this level of lust tends to take up residence on BBC3. Segway into mentioning that Myles’ niece is played by the delightfully bolshy Alice Felgate as seen in BBC3’s Some Girls. Add to that parents played by Susie Blake (Acorn Antiques and everything else Victoria Wood does) and Jeff Rawle (Drop The Dead Donkey’s George), and this cast rack up quite the comedy CV.
It’s actually very good fun. Sometimes the delivery’s a bit fast, so that you can tell the cast are exchanging set-ups to punchlines rather than dialogue, but this is just a quibble. Myles’ english accent is dead good, only occasionally slipping into her own flat Welsh vowels, and hardly noticeable when it does. Everybody’s family is a bit batty, and when Rawle pulls out a piece of paper with questions for his daughters’ boyfriends that haven’t been updated since they were taking their A-levels there’s a sweet familiarity.
Other scene setters include Head’s naturist brother living with them, the fact that this rather dashing older man (Head, not his brother) also runs a successful business that allows him to have a house with a swimming pool – which adds to the conspiracy of family hushed whispers that he might be having a midlife crisis the possibility that she might be simply after his money. Plus a degenerate grandson turning up to borrow cognac funds, and Myles’ sister and her clan are close at hand. There’s plenty to get to grips with, along with the old unspoken wisdom from May To December than it’s the most reasonable people of the whole crew being harangued for their unorthodox relationship.
An interesting first toe into the sea of original commissions for Gold then, from the ever-reliable Hat Trick production house. It still begs the question why Gold would want to introduce new content, having already done quite well re-commissioning new scripts for older shows like Yes, Minister. Surely it goes against the ethos of a channel heralding the good old days to bring in something new? But that’s by the by. In a TV guide so dense with channels these days it’s hard to see the wood for the trees, it’s always good to spot new shrubs making such a promising start.
You, Me & Them, Gold, Wednesday 23 October 2013
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