Trio of great British actresses team up for drama about older ‘Girlfriends.’
Nicole Kidman could have been talking about the stars of the superb British drama “Girlfriends” when she pointed out the importance of allowing women over 40 to tell their stories in film and television during her appearance at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Just as Kidman brought a powerhouse group of women together for “Big Little Lies,” BAFTA winner Kay Mellor has assembled three great British actresses who are as vital now as they were in their 20s and 30s. Miranda Richardson, Phyllis Logan and Zoe Wanamaker play three friends “of a certain age,” as they put it, who have been close since they were in their teens, in spite of the separate paths they chose for their own lives.
The first of six episodes is available for streaming on Acorn TV on Monday.
At this point in their lives, as each woman faces issues beyond her control, they are reminded that the bond they share has gotten them through past difficulties and will do so again.
Much of the focus seems at first to be on Sue (Richardson) only because she’s the kind of person who commands attention in any room she enters. She has spent her life in love with John (Anthony Head), with whom she cofounded a brides’ magazine called Adorable. They have a son, Andrew (Philip Cumbus), but have never married because John won’t leave his wife. Now, Sue is facing major changes in her personal and professional lives and seems to have little say in either.
Gail (Wanamaker) and her husband Dave (Adrian Rawlins) were growing part. There didn’t seem to be any single reason for it, but Gail was feeling unattractive and uninterested in sex. Now their divorce decree has come through, and Gail is filled with regret. She has a son, Tom (Matthew Lewis), just out of jail, but required to wear an ankle monitor. Her mother Edna (Valerie Lilly) is in an assisted living center, but may need to be moved to another facility. Attending an event, Gail colors bits of her hair with mascara to hide the gray. Unfortunately, the mascara was not waterproof.
Linda (Logan) had been thinking her life is nicely settled. In fact, she and her husband, Micky (Steve Evets) decided to take their first cruise together, with some financial help from their children, Ryan (Chris Fountain) and Ruby (Daisy Head). It all comes undone in an instant when Micky is either swept overboard, jumped or was pushed. And if it was the latter, Linda is the prime suspect. Linda feels helpless. She always depended on Micky to take care of household finances and make decisions in their lives.
There is so much to love about this series, not the least of which is watching three superb actresses not only on top of their respective games, but playing so brilliantly off one another. More to the point, though, is how Mellor has grounded the miniseries in credible real life, There are many moments of humor in the three episodes made available to critics, but they are woven into the context of the story and characters. In other words, don’t expect set-ups and punchlines a la “The Golden Girls.” Linda doesn’t threaten to send her mum to Shady Pines.
“Girlfriends” is part mystery and we’re hooked on wanting to know what happened to Micky. But the more important “mysteries,” really, are the lives of these three women, each one heroic in her own life. One way or another, they all followed prescribed paths in life — even Sue, who was too obsessed with John and her job to realize how much she was neglecting not only Andrew, but even more important, herself.
These are women who sacrificed in one way or another. Now they look back and question whether the sacrifices were ill-considered or even worth it. For a time, each thinks that may have been the case. They retrace their steps, their decisions, in an effort to understand how they got to where they are when we meet them.
Those journeys are not easy, but they are empowering. Linda, Sue and Gail may be momentarily gobsmacked by regrets, but those regrets become the fuel for pushing forward on their own terms. Most of all, no one is alone. They have each other and there is strength in that.