sat 14/12/2024

Last Tango in Halifax, Christmas special, BBC One | reviews, news & interviews

Last Tango in Halifax, Christmas special, BBC One

Last Tango in Halifax, Christmas special, BBC One

Halifax, Harrogate, Huddersfield, wherever... They're back. Glorious

There will be trouble ahead: a (very) rare moment of calm for Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) and Gillian (Nicola Walker)

It could only happen in Halifax. The series' two families, whom we have come to know so well and – with exceptions – love, had arranged a pre-Christmas dinner out, festive-like as Alan, the ever-saintly Derek Jacobi, might put it.

Instead there was Gillian (Nicola Walker) all on her tod, nursing a glass, until Caroline (Sarah Lancashire), equally solo, hoved into view. Pity the waiter who approached to ask what they’d like: a smaller table, pronto, and the wine list. The wine list is usually the crucial element when these two get together, though a later scene in the second episode of Sally Wainwright’s Christmas special two-parter had them managing one of their inimitable deepies while they did the rounds of the supermarket .

Jacobi still can’t finish ‘sentence if 'bull was after him

Shout it from the hilltops: these two are just glorious. When it comes to the usual annual gongs, really only the toss of a coin can decide who's the most deserving (I speak as a past advocate for Walker: now, I’m reserving judgment). The two of them were dining à deux this time having declined the company of respective kith and kin. Rather forcefully. Caroline, of course, with that kind of genteel disaffection that leaves a room sniffily (must be the head-teacher in her), Gillian after a thermo-nuclear blow-out that threatens to demolish walls (something about a green dress, since you ask).

It’s two years since the shattering sudden death of Caroline’s partner, Kate – and close on that since we last visited these parts in Wainwright’s company. Location alert, for starters: the days of ever-so-proper, stuck-up-its-own Harrogate are gone, with Caroline’s move to a new headship precipitating relocation in the Huddersfield direction. She’s chosen a lovely old place right out in the country, needs a bit of work, to be sure, and bit on the cold side, as Anne Reid’s inimitable Celia can’t help going on (and on) about. No sign of her and Alan – Jacobi still can’t finish ‘sentence if 'bull was after him – decamping to any blooming bungalow.

Reid’s riposte on hearing about her daughter’s new job was priceless: the fact that Caroline wasn’t moving south – that dread first intake of disbelieving breath – may have been a relief, but she coped with the news that it was a state school with all the aplomb of a would-be Lady Bracknell relieved of multiple handbags. Which actually she nearly was, since am-dram featured prominently in this Christmas storyline: Celia ended up as Blithe Spirit's Madame Arcati instead, which made for some nifty ouija-board practice after Christmas dinner (pictured above). Alan got roped in too, predictably, and triumphed against the odds.

Wainwright manages something remarkable in melding the two tonally disparate strands of her story: call it Coward – though Wilde would do no less well, snooty bon-mots and all – meets gutsy Nordic noir (Gillian’s getting up to a right Ibsen back in that barn). The two-episode format suited her writing neatly, allowing for some nice use of flashbacks to vary story development.

At one point we heard Gillian pondering, “I’m thinking about becoming a lesbian.” I don’t think that’s going to happen – though not because the male contingent (pictured above) doesn’t often seem plain dismal (sons excepted). Coincidentally the same line, or words to that effect, cropped up last week, in a Jacobi-related context to boot, with the final episode of the now-departed sitcom Vicious (hard to say that one will be much missed). There it was Frances de la Tour going on about precisely nothing. It brought home, as if it needs to be said, just how Wainwright writes drama about grown-ups for grown-ups. Maybe she could manage a sitcom – Celia might even be right at home in one – but I can’t see it coming to that.

But the dramatic current runs so resoundingly in one direction that we sometimes just wish the rest of them would pipe down – so much for Last Tango's original brief as a new stomping ground for under-used senior thespian talent – and let Walker and Lancashire thrash it all out in their private Valhalla. As they assuredly will. The fact that this brief revisit closed with Caroline striding purposefully into her first day at that unfamiliar new school hinted that Wainwright will be offering us a proper new series before long. Can't wait.

Wainwright manages something remarkable in melding the two tonally disparate strands of her story

rating

Editor Rating: 
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)

Share this article

Comments

Good acting from Sarah Lancashire but why drag out the old chestnut of am dram amateur theatre deserves better

What network can we see Last Tango... I saw it on Netflix. Please help. I don't want to miss it. Gloriia

I so hope you are right that more episodes are coming. Somehow, it felt like an ending to me. This show is glorious and these characters are glorious. It is my favorite show on American and British TV. I absolutely love Caroline and Gillian...they are two of the best written characters on television and I need more...it's like a drug...I really need more Ms. Wainwright...if you happen to be reading this article!

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters