The final episode is great right up until the last 5 or 10 minutes or so, which sees the two families forcibly separated. Gradually the two families start to merge, including extra-marital hi-jinks & the beginnings of a relationship for Petula. I don't think I laughed in series 2 until episodes 4 & 5 (of 6!) which hardly makes it comedy-drama any more. Though episode 4 in particular is highly entertaining *and* includes aliens! Meanwhile the posh, landed Tundish family is living in decayed splendour on the moors near Clitheroe, is equally strapped for cash & also more or less incapable of looking after themselves. When their cook walks out, Joanna, wife of older son Mort & who is not enamoured of the family dynamic of never talking about anything to do with feelings, goes to the Job Centre & signs Petula up. She knows ex-diplomat Roger will hate the sight of Pet, but also that he's far too buttoned up to *say* anything.

It's an excellently produced and beautifully acted show, as more or less to be expected from the BBC. But the writing and the characters are probably a bit of an acquired taste, especially some of the posh Tundish family who are given to speaking in incomplete sentences, reflecting their extremely repressed personalities.

Maelstrom

Series one is certainly the most fun & the only one that really deserves the moniker of comedy-drama. By series two, there's a lot more drama and frankly hardly any laughs.

Sparks fly in the kitchen one day when her cook walks out, leaving Joanna scurrying down to the local Job Centre to find a replacement. Unfortunately, outrageous punk Pet Belcher (Mossie Smith) is who she ends up with. The series ends with a dark turn though & when we return for series 2, there's the fall out from that to deal with before what I think was the really big mistake - bumping off a major character, one of the most likeable ones. It's designed to force some of the others to actually FEEL but it leaves a hole in the ensemble that never really heals. It's probably unfair that it's so forgotten and it's certainly worth a look but I don't know if I would watch it repeatedly. The basic plot was "the Tundishes, down-at-heel country aristocrats, are compelled to live cheek-by-jowl with the vulgar Belchers from Salford" [4] so simultaneously drawing on the English north-south divide and class divide. Anyway, that was that. The end. Very unsatisfactory for the viewer & probably for the production team too. A good, clever, well-acted, well-produced story with quite a few laughs, some tears, some music & some very quirky moments but also (IMHO) a couple of poor writing decisions.

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