Recently I watched two seasons of a British TV show called “Last Tango in Halifax.” It’s about two septuagenarians who had crushes on one another as teenagers, but who ultimately ending up marrying other people, and later being widowed. They are reunited via Facebook some 60 years later and immediately decide to get married. This brings their two crazy families together, and all sorts of interesting (and often unsavory) things happen. One character slowly reveals the truth about her husband’s death, another comes out as a lesbian, and they’re all drunk half the time. “Last Tango in Halifax” is a soap opera, to be sure, but it’s so much fun!
It was Derek Jacobi in the lead role that made me want to watch this show. He is every bit as wonderful as I had hoped. The other actors are also excellent. Their characters are all believably human, if not always likable. But Jacobi’s character holds the whole thing together. I could watch him all day.
Another thing that consistently delights me is the language. Not just the accents, but the enjoyable mix of dialect and slang. They say “owt” and “nowt” for “anything” and “nothing,” and “summat” for “something.” When they’re imagining possibilities, they say “happen” instead of “perhaps.” When they’re behaving stupidly, they call each other “dozy pillocks.” When they’re feeling lazy, they do “bugger all.” When a woman gets pregnant, she’s “in the pudding club.”
They also seem to be waging war on the word “the.” Sometimes they leave it out completely, saying things like, “That’s plan.” Other times (maybe ahead of vowels?) they just reduce it to a quick and dirty “t.” It’s strangely mesmerizing, this speech made rough by all the holes where the most common word in English ought to be.
I also love the backdrop of the northern English countryside. It’s lovely, both brilliantly green and dismally gray at the same time. One character, who manages a sheep farm up on a hill, says that the winter wind there is strong enough to knock a person over. I’d like to give that a try some time.
In the meantime, I look forward to the next season. I hope Netflix brings it soon!