A mix tape of emotions
BBC2, 10pm IT’S a pact that may well be familiar to a lot of people.
You’re young, carefree and imagining the future, when you and a mate decide that if you’re both single by a certain age, you’ll marry each other. A back-up plan.
That’s the premise for this comedy, the latest in a long raft of pilots from the BBC – and one which we would gladly see turned into a series.
It starts with 15-year-old pals Amy and Andy messing around – he’s just given her a mix tape. Anyone who was young in the 90s knows a mix tape means absolute undying love (anyone not born then probably wonders what a mix tape is).
“I think you just might be the nicest human boy I’ve ever met,” says Amy, oblivious that Andy is staring at her with lovelorn puppy-dog eyes.
She suggests a pact – marry at 35 if they are both single. Amy doesn’t ever think it will happen, but Andy desperately hopes it will.
Fast-forward 20 years and both have terrible love lives.
Amy (Sarah Solemani) is basically Bridget Jones. She has to endure her nephew’s birthday party full of smug marrieds wondering why she has no husband, no kids, and is still renting.
Her relationships never seem to go beyond drunken one-night stands.
Meanwhile Andy (Brett Goldstein) is divorced with a son, but in a new relationship with a woman he barely tolerates.
Just as Amy is contemplating her terrible life in the midst of the kids’ party from hell, in walks Andy – who still remembers the pact.
Funny and sweet, with a great cast including Ade Adepitan and Lolly Adefope, there’s plenty of scope here for more.