Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TWO-YEAR MARRIAGE ALREADY IN TROUBLE
LUCY WORSLEY BBC1, 8.30pm
Dear Coleen
I got married two years ago after 18 months of dating. Sadly, my marriage has already run into trouble, which I think is mostly down to Covid and being with each other 24/7.
My husband and I argue a lot and at other times find we have nothing to talk about. He’s become quite withdrawn and focuses on work a lot.
We also have stresses with money, work and ill relatives, which only adds more pressure on the top.
I just don’t know whether this is just a short-term blip or something more serious.
It all feels soul destroying after only two years of marriage.
Can you help?
Coleen says
It is soul destroying, but you have to remember you’re in a very unusual situation. The first two years of marriage is traditionally a honeymoon period, but lockdown is no honeymoon – it’s like being under house arrest and it’s not normal. It’s a stressful and unexpected situation.
Usually if your other half is annoying you, you can offload on a friend over coffee or have a night out. And, of course, in normal circumstances you’d also be able to see your relatives for support and to put your mind at rest. At the moment, all the stress has nowhere to go, but build up internally.
It’s important to keep talking – acknowledge that it’s a weird way to start a marriage and remind each other why you got married and why you love each other.
And talk about the future because, at some point, things will get better. I’d also suggest not making any knee-jerk decisions about your marriage while we’re in this situation.
Never one to take anything at face value, historian Lucy Worsley wants to know if the ‘Blitz spirit’, a benchmark of Britishness, is actually true.
We may see ‘Keep calm and carry on’ mugs and tea towels these days, but are Brits really as resilient as we like to believe? What was living through the Blitz really like? And what has been conveniently forgotten?
In this feature-length docu-drama, Lucy explores the lives of six real
people, who lived, worked and volunteered during the Blitz 80 years ago, when Britain was under attack from German bombs.
Archive footage as well as actors reading powerful firsthand accounts bring to life the stories of those including Nina Masel, a shop girl from Romford, then part of Essex, and Frank Hurd, a London fireman.
Lucy also reports from key locations like the Imperial War Museum archive, while crucially shining a light on the role of frontline workers during the Second World War.