Love, Lies and Records

Vibe, 9:40pm Monday

Not a made-for-TV reboot of High

Fidelity, however cool (or not) that would be. These are different kinds of records — we’re talking birth, deaths and marriages. It doesn’t sound the most fertile grounds for an actionpacked TV series, does it, the old register office, but prepare to be surprised.

Written and created by prolific British screenwriter Kay Mellor (her most recent show, Girlfriends ,is on TVNZ OnDemand), Love, Lies

and Records manages to pack in an immensely satisfying amount of drama.

Where do we even begin? Senior registrar Kate Dickenson (Ashley Jensen, Maggie from Extras )isa working mum with a couple of dreadful teenagers at home and one powerful enemy of a colleague at work. Kate has had a fling in a cupboard with a handsome co-worker at last year’s Christmas party, and when she gets promoted ahead of work nemesis, evil Judy reveals she’s been sitting on the CCTV footage all along.

So there’s that. Another storyline, involving Kate’s teenage daughter having troubling texts on her phone, is only really hinted at during the first episode, because there’s a tearjerking triple-whammy (a birth, death and marriage — not in that order) to attend to. There’s also a suspected visa-scam wedding to get to the bottom of, and another workmate who needs Kate’s support after coming out as transgender.

If this series was a book it’d be one you take to the beach on holiday and polish off in two days in a hammock while your kids bring you G&Ts. It’s a welcome respite from the relentlessly bleak psychological dramas the BBC is churning out these days — well worth a series link.