MovieChat Forums > Last Tango in Halifax (2013) Discussion > Where did Last Tango in Halifax go? Wha...

Where did Last Tango in Halifax go? What happened?

posted 10 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (41638798)
25 replies | jump to latest

Putting aside the great cast.

What happened to this series?

I tuned in at to the very first series wrongly presuming evidently that this series would be a heartwarming story about a lovely wrinkly couple who find love again--and in a youth obsessed world, it had a poignant and unique story to tell us.

But by the finale of Series 2, the whole thing changed and that the promise of what this show was about had been discarded and it became the post-modern, lesbian journey with all the relevant societal clichés beaten to death until we submit to the current series reboot, complete with same sex legal marriage and the requisite designer baby taking over the show.

I knew the sea change had taken place when at the finale of series 2, the joy and excitement we were supposed to be enjoying during the happy Celia's and Alan's new married life and their romantic wedding reception left the happy couple on the edges of the room, forgotten, while the apparently much more important plot line of the two women reuniting and dancing in the center of the reception, snogging in front of everybody to let their coupleship go public...made me say...whaaaa?

It left Alan and Celia in the dust. All focus off them and evidently on the much more important plot line in ITV's view.

I have no problem with the essence of the plots. But Celia and Alan just got left behind someplace in the push to tick the relevant boxes at ITV and refocus the love story to another couple that now seems to take precedence because evidently their experiment with golden age romance wasn't making the grade and they had shift to a more "fashionable" romance.

But felt like it had been a bait and switch all along. They left Celia and her beloved husband in the dust because apparently their love story wasn't important enough after all to hang a series on. And the premise of the show seemed to be, and the attraction was at first, that a senior love story WAS worthy of its own show. But evidently not.

And series 3? It seems like a reboot. Not the series they began with.

I miss the show. If Sally Wainright wants to write THIS show that ticks all modern demographic boxes required by networks and viewers, then write it. But don't steal this show out from under Celia and Alan to satisfy the luvvies! haha

[–] MGBen5 10 years ago

I find it interesting, though not surprising, that you don't seem bothered by all the focus on Gillian's relationships with Paul, John and Robbie through the years. Heterosexual couples are never an issue, are they?

It's also strange timing for you to complain about the "fashionable" lesbian couple when one of them has just been killed off and, per Sally Wainwright, the widow shall not find another love in the foreseeable future.

[–] rdavies23 10 years ago

I'm not sure that a middle aged headmistress and teacher will ever be "fashionable", gay or otherwise.

I think that the notion of a previously married mother having a relationship with a woman is quite interesting, and one that hasn't been explored on any show that I've seen. It also gave Anne Reid some fantastic scenes/lines.

I'm not sure that the teen pregnancy added much to the programme. For me, that would be the "issue-driven" storyline that I'd have abandoned, not the same-sex marriage one. The socio-economic difference between Raff and Lawrence/Will was abundantly clear, so the pregnancy thing felt a bit forced and cliched.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (41638798) 10 years ago

Alas, my message isn't about gay or not gay or lesbian or not lesbian plot lines.

It's about how I was excited at first to see a late-aged couple be the focus of a tv drama and have THEM be the focal point and to see their story be center stage.

But the whole thing went off piste. The other relationships shown are all interesting.

But they weren't the ones who took center stage and overshadowed Celia's and Alan's big moment at their long-awaited wedding reception.

When you send the happy couple to the edges of the room and have the entire ending of the second series be about another couple with knobs on--then a point is being made, IMHO. And it's not an organic dramatic one.

I just wanted the wrinklies to be front and center, but choosing that moment in the show to have the big reunion and long public snog sent a message that the show was moving away from the core story and to one that ticks more boxes on the ratings fight.

But so be it. It doesn't matter. There's something for everybody. Abortion and LGBT plot lines can never be discussed narrowly within the confines of how they work or don't work in a plot. They are too grounded politically to be discussed in the small frame of a tv show.

[–] butaneggbert 10 years ago

I don't see the wedding scene as out of keeping with the show up to that point at all. From the very beginning, the three women - Celia, Caroline, and Gillian - have been front and center. We saw as much of Caroline's life and marriage falling apart, and Gillian's personal messes, as we did Celia's growing relationship. The show began - and continued - interweaving all their stories with equal attention.

I'm puzzled by your last sentence - "They are too grounded politically to be discussed in the small frame of a tv show". Are you saying they shouldn't be brought up or featured because the medium is too limited?

[–] greenegg 10 years ago

When previously married people with families remarry, even IRL, there are all sorts of family complications that crop up. That's just how life works. Nothing is ever milk and honey all the time. Celia and Alan cannot exist in a vacuum; that seems a valid plot line. They have children and grand-children whose lives are complicated. Older people have all sorts of baggage; then again, don't we all?

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] Boogalow 10 years ago

I agree with the OP, definitely jumped the shark.

[–] khalefadoriath 10 years ago

The premise of the programme may have changed but Caroline's story was the most dramatically compelling throughout the current series. Gillian's complicated relationships had me itching to give her a slap in the last episode.

A final point to the OP: Last Tango is a BBC production, not an ITV one and the only agenda I can discern is to make intelligent, watchable tv. Your obsession with "focus groups and ticking boxes" says more about you than the writers.

[–] greenegg 9 years ago

Well-said!

I have many friends whose traditional marriages foundered; after their divorces, some of them ended up in committed same-sex relationships, often much to their surprise. I remember a quote from graduate school, though I forget the source: "people fall in love with people, rather than with genders" (paraphrased, rather than verbatim). Some of them have since married, while others have raised children from their former marriages together. These sorts of arrangements/relationships have been around for ages; perhaps we only recently started dealing with them more openly. Being "fashionable" has little to do with it.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] velcronewsletter 10 years ago

perhaps the alan and celia storyline has ran its course. they got married and are still having fights and making plans, it's not they can have kids to pad out their storyline more

[–] standrkm 10 years ago

yeah if that was the end then I found it weak, they left quite a few characters high and dry didn't they

the show started off amazing but it ran out of gas quickly, the same stuff over and over again, everyone getting married, everyone having a baby, I mean how many episodes were about babies and weddings, it got old quick, there was no happy ending in my opinion which I guess that's life, but come on now, that's TOO realistic haha, but hey you brits do this ALL the time, you have these weak finales so that people will tune in later on for the special and see everything get tied up in a pretty little bow, or will there be another season, who knows with these shows

"the day I tried to live, I learned that I was alive"

[–] greenegg 10 years ago

LTIH not only has a third, but also a fourth season. Your talk of finales seems premature. If you don't like the show, then switch the channel. I love it, so I'll keep watching.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] indialm 10 years ago

You complain about the Lesbian storyline for two paragraphs and then say you don't mind about it? Uh, I think you do.
The storyline matured, as life often does. Things will come round again to Alan and Celia but you sound like Celi's character as she reveals that her daughter being gay is abhorrent to her.
Why want a third season then? Sounds like you should skip it.

[–] greenegg 10 years ago

Many older people remarry, and many of them share center stage with younger family members. Alan and Celia will take center stage again, but neither wants to live in a vacuum; they want to be in their children's lives. What is so unusual about that? I don't detect an agenda, etc. It's just storytelling that employs many of life's complications. My extended family has experienced several of the scenarios seen on LTIH.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] Ithilfaen 10 years ago

3...2...1... Ignore.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] greenegg 10 years ago

😁👏

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] magpieskye 10 years ago

Different strokes. :)

I've always perceived it as an ensemble series, like Gavin & Stacey. In fact, I remember an interesting interview with Ruth Jones and James Corden, discussing how they came up with the idea for G&S. Corden said they got the idea from his best mate, named Gavin, who had met his wife the same way the title characters meet in that series. But Corden explains further that he and Ruth thought it would be a great idea for a.series because the marriage would bring together people from different places, who would have differences in background, etc. (So far, the premise is so similar to that of LTIH, right?)

Found the interview on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4aODHZlKuY

Corden and Jones then explained that their series was named Gavin & Stacey because they are the reason why all the other characters meet and move in each others' worlds. And that's how I've always seen LTIH. Alan and Celia are really important characters, but they aren't the whole story. :)

Sally Wainwright used the story of her mother's remarriage, and meeting the old friend on facebook, just as James Corden and Ruth Jones used the story of his friends meeting over the phone because of their jobs. Both series depict circumstances in the lives of multiple characters, who are all interesting In their own right and have dramas of their own, unrelated to those of the newlyweds. ;)