Despite its rather off-putting title, which at first put me in mind of a potential Exotic Marigold Hotel no. 3 set-up, this six-part Channel Four series got off to an intriguing beginning.
Five, let's be polite and say, senior citizens meet up at an out-of-the-way hotel where, as the night progresses and the drinks flow, they all pledge everlasting "Truelove" to one another. Turns out the pub boasts an ancient legend in its history about two young lovers who followed through on a suicide pact. The subject amongst the group naturally turns to death and they drunkenly pledge to assist each other to die should the situation arise, making what they call the Truelove pledge. As they all go upstairs to their bedrooms, one of the women, Lindsay Duncan's Phil, a retired, very senior police officer tries to proposition Clarke Peters' Ken, a black, ex-U. S. soldier but he resists her offer.
Turns out there's a bit of previous history between the two as we learn that over fifty years ago she jilted him at the altar. Both ended up subsequently rebounding into unsatisfactory marriages, hers has lasted but it's obviously now loveless and his, although it produced a son, quickly failed, leaving him estranged and pretty much alone in the world, apart from his faithful dog.
Anyway, pretty soon after they disperse, another of their number, uncoincidentally the one who first came up with the Truelove idea and who now has a terminal cancer diagnosis, summons Phil and Ken to put him out of his misery by effectively killing him and making it look like suicide. He's already tried it once himself and failed and wants to tap into their professional experience and expertise to ensure the job gets done right this time.
So the duo agonisingly search their souls but eventually do the deed, only to be asked a few months later to do the same for another of their number, Sue Johnson's Marion, the sister of the dead man and seemingly happily married wife of Peter Egan's David, the fifth group member.
Now up to this point, I was really intrigued by the central premise of euthanasia, a topical subject coming ever more under the spotlight especially as we're all living longer but unfortunately the narrative then falls into a conventional, over-plotted detective story with many too many plot coincidences and contrivances when a young WPC reaches into her inner Miss Marple and gets on their trail.
In the end, despite fine performances by all the principals, I was disappointed that the narrative veered away into ho-hum thriller territory, body-swerving a potentially deeper and darker treatise on the subjects of growing old, the fear of death and assisted suicide.
A missed opportunity then and just to compound a felony, they didn't even use the original Crosby and Kelly version of Cole Porter's classic song, played continually throughout as a motif!
Five, let's be polite and say, senior citizens meet up at an out-of-the-way hotel where, as the night progresses and the drinks flow, they all pledge everlasting "Truelove" to one another. Turns out the pub boasts an ancient legend in its history about two young lovers who followed through on a suicide pact. The subject amongst the group naturally turns to death and they drunkenly pledge to assist each other to die should the situation arise, making what they call the Truelove pledge. As they all go upstairs to their bedrooms, one of the women, Lindsay Duncan's Phil, a retired, very senior police officer tries to proposition Clarke Peters' Ken, a black, ex-U. S. soldier but he resists her offer.
Turns out there's a bit of previous history between the two as we learn that over fifty years ago she jilted him at the altar. Both ended up subsequently rebounding into unsatisfactory marriages, hers has lasted but it's obviously now loveless and his, although it produced a son, quickly failed, leaving him estranged and pretty much alone in the world, apart from his faithful dog.
Anyway, pretty soon after they disperse, another of their number, uncoincidentally the one who first came up with the Truelove idea and who now has a terminal cancer diagnosis, summons Phil and Ken to put him out of his misery by effectively killing him and making it look like suicide. He's already tried it once himself and failed and wants to tap into their professional experience and expertise to ensure the job gets done right this time.
So the duo agonisingly search their souls but eventually do the deed, only to be asked a few months later to do the same for another of their number, Sue Johnson's Marion, the sister of the dead man and seemingly happily married wife of Peter Egan's David, the fifth group member.
Now up to this point, I was really intrigued by the central premise of euthanasia, a topical subject coming ever more under the spotlight especially as we're all living longer but unfortunately the narrative then falls into a conventional, over-plotted detective story with many too many plot coincidences and contrivances when a young WPC reaches into her inner Miss Marple and gets on their trail.
In the end, despite fine performances by all the principals, I was disappointed that the narrative veered away into ho-hum thriller territory, body-swerving a potentially deeper and darker treatise on the subjects of growing old, the fear of death and assisted suicide.
A missed opportunity then and just to compound a felony, they didn't even use the original Crosby and Kelly version of Cole Porter's classic song, played continually throughout as a motif!