Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fun’s the word for the mother of all romantic comedies
This might sound a little selfish, but I wasn’t too disappointed when Lesley Manville missed out on an Oscar earlier this month.
I just figured it might leave plenty of time in her diary to make another series of the best comedy on TV right now, BBC2’S Mum.
If you haven’t yet caught up with this wonderful show, you are seriously missing out.
A programme about grief and moving on with your life following the devastating loss of a partner really shouldn’t be allowed to be this funny.
Most of the laughter is down to the characters created by Mum’s writer Stefan Golaszewski.
Some are likable. Some are unlikable. Some are a mixture of both. All of them are real though. The show’s most remarkable achievement so far, however, has been to turn garden centres into mysterious hotbeds of passion. That’s where Cathy (Manville) has her off-camera, unofficial dates with Michael (Peter Mullan).
He was her dead husband’s best friend, a man who clearly went home in tears after their wedding and has been playing Yvonne Fair’s It Should Have Been Me at full volume in his car every day since. Prior to last night, their “will they, won’t they?” storyline had been building for nine episodes.
So it was something of a relief when Michael finally revealed his true feelings for Cathy.
Sadly, she did not respond by leaping into his arms and suggesting they go for a quick roll around in the bedding plants department.
Bad news for Michael.
But great news for those of us who could happily watch this nearly romance run for at least another series or two.