It’s the end of ‘Us’ – but did your marriage survive it?
This Sunday sees the denouement of Us on BBC One, which has been required, if painful, viewing for all middle-aged couples. Here in Woods Towers, I insisted we watch the series on iplayer over two nights, partly because I wasn’t convinced my 30-year relationship would last the four-week terrestrial timescale and partly because I spent a lot of the series staring (OK, glaring) at my husband to gauge his reaction.
Spoiler alert: if you haven’t already guessed the ending, don’t read on.
Tom Hollander gave a bravura portrayal of Douglas Petersen, an incontrovertibly decent but immensely irritating fusspot.
At home and abroad, on a Grand European Tour with his battle-weary wife Connie, played to perfection by Saskia Reeves, and rebellious teenage son, he officiously focuses on tickets and timings at the expense of joy.
My own spouse self-deprecatingly noted “some” similarities. Then he spotted Douglas reading an Antony Beevor. “What? He’s only just reading it now? It was published years ago,” my husband grumbled scornfully.
What was left of Connie’s energies were channelled into persuading him the marriage was over. When she finally succeeded, Douglas immediately bagged a Scandinavian girlfriend. Where was the natural justice in that? I turned to shout at my husband – but he wasn’t nodding in approval. “That is awful,” he muttered. “He’s just sauntered off to ruin another poor woman’s life.”
And with that unexpected insight, my marriage was saved.