It’s madness in Malaga
GIRLFRIENDS ITV, 9pm THIS increasingly bizarre series has morphed from drama to comedy to utter farce.
There were moments of greatness at the beginning, but recently we have been left staring at our screens perplexed.
You cannot argue with the great casting, headed up by Phyllis Logan, Miranda Richardson and Zoe Wanamaker, but we are beginning to wonder if they read the script properly before they signed up.
And yet, here we are at the end (or is it just me?), still watching – hopeful that this series by Kay Mellor will come good.
Logan’s Linda occasionally seems to break character to blurt out some random murderous line. “I would have killed him,” she spat last time we saw her. And now the three friends Linda, Sue (Richardson) and Gail (Wanamaker) are off to Malaga on a sunny girls’ holiday to identify Micky’s body. They all pile into the mortuary with widebrimmed sun hats and big beach bags, whispering about needing a cocktail, while a dead body lies on a slab in front of them.
It’s like an episode of Ab Fab meets Benidorm meets Silent Witness.
And you will certainly need to suspend all reality for what follows, which is a comedy caper around a Spanish town, with jarring twists, turns and explanatory flashbacks.
There’s one particularly climactic moment that will either hook you in or lose you completely.
And if you’re still watching by the end, it leaves us with an opening for series two. But whether we want one or not is another matter.