Listen up lovers of Middle Age ships
I come bringing you more bounty!
Let me draw your attention to the mighty BBC sitcom MUM, starring the MULTI AWARD NOMINATED (and winning) Lesley Manville and Peter Mullins
You know I love me some gentle comedy, slow burn aching romance, with pathos and realism? Well, Mum has it in droves! (but a shockingly bad name. Very hard to narrow down search results with that title)
Mum is a show about Cathy (Lesley Manville) a woman approaching 60, who has just been widowed. The first episode takes place on the day of her husband’s funeral. Cathy is a gentle, understanding, endlessly patient woman with wit who is surrounded - frankly - by idiots and arseholes!
Her grown son Jason is lovable but dim. His girlfriend Kelly is even dimmer, constantly puts her foot in it literally and figuratively, struggles with an internal filter but has a heart of gold (the relationship between Kelly and Cathy is one of my favourite parts of the show).
Cathy’s brother Derek is another hapless fool who is dating poisonous Pauline, who looks down at everyone that isn’t her rich ex-husband (who cheated on her). And Cathy also has to deal with the sweary, complaining parents of her late husband.
But in amongst all that is Michael (Peter Mullins), a lifelong friend of Cathy and her late husband Dave. It is clear that Michael has been carrying a torch for Cathy for over 40 years, and now with Cathy finding herself single, is it time for him to declare his feelings?
The writing is sublime in that you clearly see WHY these people behave the way they do, and why Cathy puts up with them. There are wonderful touches of every day life - a lot of time is spent with Cathy picking things up and putting them away or in the bin.
There is hilarity and there are moments of heart-break, and aching yearning.
It’s warm and funny, and all takes place in Cathy’s house and garden. We in the UK are currently enjoying season 2 (currently on 3 of 6 episodes), with season 1′s 6 episodes first airing in 2016.
I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves their middle-aged ships, and especially if you are a fan of Lesley or Peter. Their performances are sublime - especially Peter who has so little lines to say but manages to convey so much.