I’m a horrible, grumpy snob...and I love it! Star on return of Dales diva
When Last Tango In Halifax debuted back in 2012, the story about two widowed pensioners falling in love captured the nation’s heart. Inspired by writer Sally Wainwright’s own family, the comedy-drama follows former childhood sweethearts – now 70-somethings – Celia and Alan, who have reunited later in life.
Former Corrie star Anne Reid, 84, is delighted to be reprising the part of Celia in the fifth series, after a three-year hiatus.
She said: “She’s a right grumpy one but I say to Sally, ‘Please don’t ever make her nice’, because I love it. You get more laughs if you’re unpleasant. I’ve been desperate to come back. I’m thrilled, we all are.”
Three years on, Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia aren’t quite seeing eye to eye in the idyllic Yorkshire Dales. Their differing politics and Alan’s new supermarket job are both a source of tension.
Ann says: “He has to wear a uniform and stand behind a till – and she’s a terrible snob. She has delusions of grandeur, she wants a husband who works in an office.
“She wants him turned out nicely. In the beginning, she always had the upper hand. Yet after seven years, he’s not quite so besotted.”
In the new series we also see Caroline (played by Sarah Lancashire) entangled in an emotional debacle with someone at work, and Gillian (Nicola Walker) faces trouble with a giraffe at Far Slack Farm.
Fans can also expect to see more of Alan’s brother Ted (Timothy West), who arrives on a one-way ticket from New Zealand.
For writer Sally, who more recently penned the BBC hit Gentleman Jack, it was a dinner with Sarah and Nicola that spurred her on to bring the much-loved show back to our screens.
“It was just hilarious. I was just sitting there listening to the two of them, and I was thinking,‘i’ve got to write something for them’,” she recalls.
“I’m in the stride of it now. I write for these extraordinary performers, so it’s a joy, it’s therapy, whereas writing other things, like Gentleman Jack, is really hard because I’m working from a diary, so it’s very intense.
“This is just the opposite, I can do what I want.”
Anne puts the show’s success down to one thing – Sally’s brilliant writing.
“We knew it was good, but we didn’t know it was going to go so universal – America, in New York and Tasmania. You can’t do anything with a bad script, so we owe Sally a great deal.”
Last Tango in Halifax, BBC1, tonight, 9pm