Cheating, reckless ... you’ll binge on this feast of law and disorder
Trashy telly isn’t fattening, thankfully, or else every slice of the legal drama The
Split (BBC1) would contain more calories than battered banoffee pie. With a side order of chips.
The programme stars Nicola Walker as hannah, a highpowered London divorce lawyer who is cheating on her husband with the wolfish senior partner at her office. To make this show even richer, hannah’s sister works at the same law firm. as does her other sister. and her mother.
room for more? her latest client, Fi (Donna air), a pop star desperate to escape her abusive marriage, sends her son to the same school as hannah’s children. In fact, the little boy comes round to her house to play after class. here’s one more dollop. hannah’s flamboyant boss Zander ( Chukwudi Iwuji) has hired a hunky new finance director. and he likes the guy so much, he’s decided to marry him. Don’t try to swallow that lot all at once, or you really will have indigestion.
There’s no room left over for legal ethics or professional standards after such a blowout.
hannah and boyfriend Christie (Barry atsma) make love against the wall of her office, which might be merely indiscreet if the walls weren’t made of glass.
she’s reckless, but she isn’t heartless. In one completely mad sub-plot, hannah took on a Church of England bishop, who turned up in purple robes and dog collar.
he wasn’t wearing his gold mitre, but he’d probably hung it on the hat-rack in reception.
Bishop Tony (Louis Mahoney) announced he wanted to divorce his wife of 47 years, because he’d tried sky- diving and bungee jumping, and there was nothing else left to try except the wild bachelor life.
The day after their meeting, Bishop Tony dropped dead. hannah lied to his widow and pretended he’d only popped by to discuss his will. she’s a divorce lawyer, yes, but such a kind one.
To further reassure us that lawyers are ordinary people under the skin, the three sisters and their mum danced shrieking round the office, like girls on a drunken hen night, when they discovered the youngest, rose (Fiona Button), was pregnant.
you might as well succumb. heaven knows you’ll regret it in the morning, but all six episodes of The split are available on iPlayer — so grab a bottle of prosecco and enjoy a shameless binge.
The portions were generous and the booze was flowing at the Loch Tummel Inn, on the hinterland of the Cairngorms National Park, when Ben Fogle paid a visit to scotland on his new show, Make A New Life In The Country (C5).
It’s a spin- off from the long-running New Lives In The Wild, which sees Ben living for a week at a time with hermits, eco-freaks and off-gridders in places as far- flung as the Peruvian desert and the mountains of Nepal. The rat race escapees featured here are far less extreme, and thus only moderately interesting.
alice and her husband Jade were successful City types, the sort we used to call ‘yuppies’, who sold their Croydon flat and bought a six-bedroom hotel and restaurant with the proceeds.
The first half of the episode catalogued their panics and heartaches as they struggled to adjust. But by the time Ben came to spend a night, the Inn was packing the customers in.
Gorgeous though the highland views were, there wasn’t much else to see.
Ben helped make the beds and waited on tables. I hope he got a discount.