Fun
Last Tango in Halifax
Dear Ann,
Do you love a juicy soap opera that’s been tarted up into a “drama?”
I sure do. I am thinking of old favorites like Thirtysomething, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and Sisters. Complicated love and family situations abound, but the writing is good, the actors are better than good, and you can immerse yourself in a world where interpersonal relationships are all that matters. The outside world is a vague backdrop. Being broke, or brokenhearted, makes a character more interesting, not actually miserable. Children, sometimes multiple generations of children, grow up OK despite their parents’ self-absorbed shenanigans.
If you like any of those shows, you’ll love Last Tango in Halifax, which may be a high water mark for the genre. I mean: do you know any other soap operas starring Derek Jacobi? (Also: Anne Reid! Sarah Lancashire! Nicola Walker!)
At the center of the story are two wrinklies in love, who have lost track of each other for 60 years due to a lost letter (remind you of a long-running Britcom?) but are reunited by the internet. They come from different worlds, blah blah blah, their grown-up kids are a mess, etc. etc., and as their two families combine, it’s one dysfunctional thing after another.
In other words, it’s delightful. A dark secret and a dash of magical realism add to the compelling-ness.
Three of the four seasons of Last Tango in Halifax are streaming on Netflix. (If you know of other sources, please shout them out in the comments.)
Love,
Kay
Looks fantastic! Big Nicola Walkerfsn now, thanks to your Unforgotten rec.
Nicola Walker is on “The Split,” which is streaming on Hulu.
I get this on my local pbs channel in Wisconsin. Waiting for season 4.
You can borrow DVDs of this and most all TV programs free from your local library.
I’ve found the DVDs at the library here too (Ontario). Can’t wait until they get Season 4 in.
I’ll second the local library route! Especially since I love working at my local library. I will put this on my list of must sees. Thanks!
I can’t wait for season 4. The only soap opera!!! I have ever watched
All 4 seasons are available on Amazon Prime
Loved Last Tango! Sarah Lancashire is amazing. I just finished Happy Valley last evening – intense! Garter stitch knitting only!
I LOVED Last Tango and can’t wait for season 4. And I loved Broadchurch and binged on it so if you have other ones I would love as much I’d like to know about them! Also got a kick out of your “wrinkles in love” comment! You are too funny!
I wrote wrinklies but auto correct won over!
This is one of my favorite series!
I’ve watched it – TWICE, loved it, would watch it again
We are addicted to “A Place to Call Home” on Acorn. It would be wonderful to binge watch it, but I’m trying to savor it and limiting it to only one episode per evening. Thank heavens there’s also baseball to occupy my evening tv knitting time.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!! How did I miss this one???
Can’t wait to watch it! Thanks I really enjoyed watching The Durrels of Corfu! Not sure where that went or if it’s coming back.
I love that show, Karen! They just aired a new series in the UK this spring. I hope you’ll get to see it soon.
It’ve recently become addicted to Last Tango. My husband knows when I’ve been watching it because I’ll ask him to “pick summat up from t’store.”
Love my local library as a source of wonderful things like this, too!
PBS Passport allows you to watch. It only takes a pledge of $5 per month.
Anne Reid was in a movie called ‘ The Mother ‘ . She had some very hot scenes with, believe it or not, Daniel Craig!
My husband and I really enjoyed watching this recently. It was easy to watch and the actors/actresses were fantastic!
I am so overwhelmed by Slow Burn ! and it’s amazing how much knitting I have done.
But Slow Burn has blown me away. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve passed it on to a lot of friends
I knit to Outlander all the time. Just have to look up at TV for the good bits! But have watched all of Last Tango and hoping for more.
Did you know Nicola Walker is in another show called The Split? It just started up so you haven’t missed much yet. She’s a divorce lawyer that left the family firm to work for a rival.
Love to binge-watch a series on Netflix. I like immediate gratification and hate to wait week to week, season to season to find out what happens. Netflix is my new best friend.
I love it it to pieces! I fell in love with the storyline if the old couple reuniting; And, it was on from there. It’s delightful disfunction!
Jacobi was asked this week about a new season. (the ‘fourth’ season is actually just a Christmas Special not a full season) The BBC responded to Jacobi’s comments with a statement: “Sally is presently engaged with another BBC project, but has every intention of revisiting Last Tango when she is able to.”
Wainwright is working on a new series
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-11-25/sally-wainwright-delays-happy-valley-series-three-to-work-on-new-drama-project/
Loved Last Tango. I have a mad girl crush on Sarah Lancashire after Happy Valley. And I could watch anything with those North country accents.
When can we expect more of Last Tango In Halifax? New episodes.
You listed four of my all-time FAVORITE series! I stumbled upon LAST TANGO while channel surfing about a year ago and became hooked IMMEDIATELY. I didn’t realize that they were related until I read your post. I DO love that genre. Thanks for the insight.
P.S. I also loved AS TIME GOES BY and watched EVERY episode of that serie’s too!
30-something! Oh, my. I was barely 20-something when I watched that. I had no clue how young I was, living with 5 others in a brownstone in DC……
This series was one of my favorites.
I’ve just started season 3 this weekend. I started watching it after reading recommendations on this blog about the show on related posts! It really is a great show. I didn’t know about the holiday special (I’m watching it on Netflix), but I checked my library and they have it on DVD! MDK commentators are the best. 🙂
I grew up in Halifax so I have really enjoyed the scenery and the accents! There’s an area of town called Woolshops and the Piece Hall is a beautiful building where the cloth and wool trade used to take place.
That sounds interesting. Always looking for something new to watch on Netflix. We always go through all the shows we like too fast. Damn you, streaming!
Sadly, I can’t find this on Canadian Netflix, Prime or Crave. Since Halifax is in Canada, I find this rather disappointing!
Love this series! First started watching it on PBS. Also loved it because it has a character with my name in it (which does not happen very often – Celia).