Last Tango in Halifax

 by Pamela Winning

       Just when we thought romantic comedy/drama had been done to death, along came ‘Last Tango in Halifax’ with a fresh and funny take on wrinkly romance.

       It’s written by the much acclaimed, BAFTA nominated playwright and TV writer, Sally Wainwright. She based this story on her widowed mother, Dorothy, who, after learning some computer skills from a grandson, found her childhood sweetheart, Alec, on Friends Reunited. Alec is also widowed. They meet, fall in love and get married. It’s not so straight forward for Sally’s characters, Celia and Alan.

       Anne Reid, who’s acting CV overflows with success; Coronation Street, Dinnerladies, Ladies of Letters and many more, plays fun-loving Celia, widowed from a controlling husband in a loveless marriage. Celia is enjoying her new-found freedom and she wants to do everything, and do it right now, before it’s too late.

“What’s the point in waiting at our age?” She explains to her concerned daughter after announcing her engagement within days of meeting Alan for the first time since they were teenagers.

Derek Jacobi, who’s acting career spans decades and many guises, slips out of Shakespearean serious stuff and makes the character of Alan his own with professional ease. His Yorkshire accent is perfect. Alan’s late wife was an old school-friend of Celia’s.

There’s lots of humour in the parent-child role reversal situations that run through every episode. Alan and Celia both have daughters and families who keep a watchful eye over them. Alan stays at his daughter’s farm a lot, helping out by doing nothing in particular. She worries about his heart condition and reminds him to take his medication. Celia’s daughter, a head teacher in an exclusive high school, gets annoyed when her mother keeps doing her own thing without telling her. Everyone was frantic with worry when Alan and Celia failed to come home all night. They had become locked in at a stately home they had gone to visit and spent the night by candlelight in a four-poster bed, with some ghostly activity going on.

 Sally Wainwright created characters I cared about and put them in some hilarious but believable situations. There are plenty of sub-plots involving Alan and Celia’s families. Alan’s daughter has a secret about how her husband really died. Celia’s daughter, who’s parted from her cheating husband, is having a same-sex relationship which isn’t easily accepted by her family.

 When great writing is brought to life with equally great acting, it becomes something extra and this is what I loved about Last Tango in Halifax.