I had to be the first to get in a comment on this programme and let everybody know what I have just witnessed. Quite simply, it is the worst television drama I have watched this year so far. It was shown in two parts, and after the appalling first extract I have no idea why I sat through the second. I must be a budding masochist at heart. Anyway, this is car-crash TV at its best, with some truly horrible acting and direction combined with some of the most inexplicable character writing I've ever seen. To see it is to believe it.
Tamzin Outhwaite plays a 30-something woman who has an affair with a married man. His wife of 14 years in understandably devastated by this, as is his teenage daughter with the tragic haircut. But, when our Tammy finds out she has an inoperable brain tumour (Yep, that staple of TV weepies) and only a few months to live, she decides she is being selfish and sends him back to his partner. Then she decides, (for reasons unknown) to marry her slimy, cheating ex, but then has a last minute change of heart. What will she do next? There now follows a real shaggy dog story over 3 hours of drama, where nobody acts like a human being and the performances are even worse than the wretched dialogue (though it is a close run thing).
There will always be a market for this brand of undemanding soap-opera melodrama, which is guaranteed to have middle age women and soft hearted blokes tuning in in their droves. But in this particular case, the long list of flaws that come along with the blubbering make it beneath even the most lenient of expectations. A longer, more tedious mess of a production you'd be hard pressed to find, and if you ever watch this believe me.. you'll stop looking. Apparently Tamzin has dreams of Hollywood, but after seeing her in this I'd be surprised if she can get a walk-on part in Neighbours. She is expressionless, her delivery is as flat as roadkill, and when it comes to her crying scenes she looks like she's broken a nail, rather than dying of a terminal disease. Anna Friel she ain't.
Some people with very low standards may decide to hold for the ending, under the hope that they can have a good cry and forget all the other faults. But seeing as these are individuals we couldn't care less about due to their nutty personalities and unsympathetic actions, why should we give a damn? Believe me, I can be as emotional as the next guy. I got a bit teary eyed at the end of The Shawshank Redemption, and Titanic set me off completely. But then, those are in an entirely different universe of quality compared to this. So please believe me: the only sobbing you'll be doing at the end will be due to the loss of 180 minutes of your life that you'll never recover. Don't say I didn't warn you.. 0/10