Mum, BBC Two | reviews, news & interviews
Mum, BBC Two
Mum, BBC Two
Lesley Manville is surrounded by gargoyles in a gentle comedy about widowhood
Saturday, 14 May 2016
The patience of a saint: Lesley Manville as Cathy in 'Mum'
The comedy of widowhood is the brave territory of Mum. Lesley Manville plays Cathy, whom we meet on the day she is burying her husband Dave – although not literally doing it herself, as has to be explained to the nice but dim new girlfriend of her stay-at-home son Jason (Sam Swainsbury).
As the mourners gather at her Chingford semi, each fresh arrival proves more grotesque than the last, and poor Cathy’s face becomes a little more pinched as her heroic reserves of tolerance run almost dry.
First there’s Kelly (Lisa McGrillis, pictured below) who arrives in a short red dress, needing to borrow a pair of knickers, talking about number ones and twos and the death of her dog. Then Cathy’s brother brings a new squeeze called Pauline (Dorothy Atkinson), whose eye-poppingly aggressive snobbery makes you want to chuck her in the boot of the hearse and screw down the lid. Finally the deceased’s parents arrive, deaf and crotchety and mainly interested in what they can scoff at the wake.
Standing aside from all this is Peter Mullan as Michael, her husband’s oldest chum and best man. He clearly carries a torch for Cathy so watch this space. Mullan watchers who’ve had it up to here with his slightly exhausting parade of brutes will be pleasantly surprised to see him doing shy and reserved.
Manville was of course born to play Cathy, another of her mothers carrying a heavy load. See also Ghosts (for which she won an Olivier), Mike Leigh’s play Grief, The Go-Between and the stage version of All About My Mother, in all of which something goes horribly wrong. Cathy’s a different mum altogether, superhumanly tolerant and slightly daffy (your reading glasses are on your head, Cathy). She cracks only once when she is provoked into correctly identifying Pauline as “a fucking twat”, alas not to Pauline’s face. Let us pray that pleasure awaits.
The tone is gentle, observational, the pace glacially lifelike. Stefan Golaszewski, who also writes plays, won a BAFTA for his previous television comedy Him & Her. Mum is more unassuming. The set-up asks the viewer to see the world through Cathy’s eyes. It’s a slightly frustrating perspective because Cathy, having the patience of a saint, is nicer and perhaps more passive than at least some of the rest of us. But stick with it, because Mum will certainly grow.
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Comments
When a sitcom is described as
mmm. Yeah. Not so much.i am
mmm. Yeah. Not so much.
i am not a 47 year old woman, I am a 50 year old man. But I also know fantastic writing, direction and acting (I happen to have a degree in it, but that's not relevant) when I see it.
have to say, this is one of the best observed most closely true to life 'dramedy's ' I have seen this or in very many years.
I have been shouting its praises to everyone I have met for weeks.
Sorry you didn't like it. Have you checked up on your soul recently?
The truly pitiful thing is
The truly pitiful thing is that people like you do exist.
Spot on review. I usually
Spot on review. I usually love Lesley Manville but found the first episode of Mum utterly tedious, clumsily written and unworthy of her subtle talent. The characterisation of the supporting cast was crass and obvious, peddling in particular the classic patronising BBC view that anyone with a Cockney accent is a gauche idiot. The blonde bimbo who talked like the Little Match Girl, for instance, who - hehe, bien sûr, mes amis - turns up to a funeral in a red mini-dress with no knickers underneath. Oooops, 'ow's yer farver? I totally agree that, like many of the depictions of women in their 40s on television - Sally Wainwright's brilliant protagonists in Happy Valley or Scott and Bailey and Mike Bartlett's in Doctor Foster being notable exceptions - Manville's character is dull and two-dimensional: a simpering doormat who lacks the autonomy, complexity, intelligence and attitude of real fortysomething women. Male writers often seem to struggle with creating believable female characters, and I certainly don’t think that a top-level female scriptwriter would ever have penned the female characters in the way Stefan Golaszewski has in this series. Am amused by the responses of blokes who regard disliking this show as a sign of moral deficiency. Er, no, actually: people dislike it because it's not perceptive, not socially aware, not emotionally true and not funny.
i love this series!!!! It
i love this series!!!! It shows a little slice of life , and definitely portrays the sacrifices , love and the know ,when to bite your tongue and be quiet(so not to hurt , or put any cold water on your children's,families dreams) the job of a mum !! She's exactly like me !! More please
This is wonderful, crafted
Love this! The entire cast
Love this! The entire cast is supherb and Lesley Manville is outstanding holding the crazy troup together. I was so moved watching the sixth episode with her and Peter Mullan sitting on the bench reaching out to each other yet feeling so alone. Amazing acting and writing. Don't want it to end.