And now for something completely different, a pop culture interlude. Last Tango in Halifax – any watchers here?
I don’t think much of the latest season, season 3. Too much silly melodrama and way too little daily life, which is what it’s best at. I got bored. It’s funny that melodrama can be boring while daily life can be enthralling, but there it is, at least for me.
Still. It’s better than most things. Women front and center, and talking about lots of things besides a man. It passes the Bechdel test in the first few minutes, every time.
And then it’s Yorkshire.
And it’s Derek Jacobi, the best Hamlet ever in the history of everything.
And Nicola Walker, and Nina Sosanya.
Never heard of it, but apparently i can watch it online thanks to PBS. Probably bad idea to start with S3E6, but that’s what I am doing right now. 🙂
Wull that was the episode that disappointed me the most. One drama after another.
I do love Derek Jacobi.
I like it. Not only Derek Jacobi (who is impossible not to like), but all the characters seems to have their good points and their bad. A little hero and a little villain in every one.
I love Derek Jacobi too. I feel personally robbed with the short run of the Brother Cadfael mysteries that he starred in. The series never got its feet under it and it is such a great series of novellas. They were a guilty pleasure when I was at uni; a quick, easy read that wasn’t for school.
Does anyone know if Last Tango in Halifax is on Netflix?
It was a lot of drama – even the opening bit was very trope-y drama. I may try E1, but i don’t get to so easily internet S1 & 2. At least i can find out when they run again. Thanks.
The first two seasons are on Netflix as is the show “Happy Valley” by the same production team and starring Sarah Lancashire who plays Caroline in Last Tango which I liked as well.
I am a huge Derek Jacobi fan. The username I normally use today and I first started using on the Internet back in the 90s is Cadfile – a play on Jacobi’s Brother Cadfael series.
This season of Halifax is kind of off the rails where people go insane for no real reason like when Celia refused to go to Caroline’s wedding just because Alan didn’t tell her he had a love child with another woman 40 years ago??? What was that about.
I do love the characters.
Thanks, cadfile. I’ve watched Happy Valley. Cool. I’ll add Last Tango to my list.
Ooh that sounds good. [makes a note of it]
I too am a huge fan of Derek Jacobi. I got to see his Macbeth in Stratford this one time. It required leaving London at dawn to get a same-day standing up ticket (it was sold out otherwise) and it was totally worth it.
You missed out Sally Wainwright, the writer. Overall, pretty much a royal flush of women leading from the front.
Totally agree about series 3, though. Last Tango in Halifax made a respectably better-than-most second series but should have stopped there. UK telly dramas are so often different to US TV mega-series that way.
Saw him first in the TV series ” I, Claudius” Mind-blowing!
Cannot mention him without mentioning that drama about the Roman empire. Successor to Augustus, Caligula, and the rest of the founding Roman emperors.
Got to see him in all sorts of different works ever since then – shows, movies, and series.
My mother watches this show!
She was disappointed in the third series as well (too “nasty and spiteful” in her words).
If you are interested in the work of Sally Wainwright then At Home With The Braithwites might be worth a look. About a family that wins £38m in the lottery.
I love Sally Wainwright, despite dissatisfaction with season 3. I think Scott & Bailey is the best thing ever.