Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid return in Sally Wainwright's simply excellent family saga. Celia is overjoyed when Alan regains consciousness after the heart attack. And for a brief moment it's all happy families as both clans unite over the good news. But soon, Gillian purges her guilt over her night with John and the foundations quake anew. Every moment feels like truth thanks to a script so tightly woven you could strain tea through it. Such acting, such writing; it's as near to perfect television as you can get.

Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid resume their touching romance as mature lovebirds Alan and Celia for a second season of laughter and tears. Having narrowly cheated death last time out, Alan has a renewed zest for life and, apart from a spot of rock climbing, what he really, really, wants to do is be married to Celia - and the sooner the better. As for daughters Gillian and Caroline, the near-fatal crisis appears to have brought the families closer together. But the honeymoon period hits turbulence when Caroline's wastrel ex John enters the scene and complex emotions bubble to the surface. Nicola Walker, Sarah Lancashire and Tony Gardner co-star.

At the end of the first series of Sally Wainwright's winning, warm-hearted drama, dear Alan was hovering between life and death after a heart attack. Obviously he survives, or there wouldn't be much point in returning to Yorkshire for a second helping.

It's great to see everyone again in a drama where pensioners are loved, cherished and never dismissed as inconvenient, and this time the masterly Wainwright has broadened the drama to dig deeper into other characters, notably Caroline (Sarah Lancashire, who's excellent) the newly-confident and newly out lesbian. While Alan and Celia (Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid) mend the relationship that almost fractured for ever, there's a shift in the tectonic plates in the romantic lives of their families. Just look at poor Gillian (Nicola Walker), who is made to pay for her terrible mistake in sleeping with John (Tony Gardner), Caroline's pathologically hopeless estranged husband. No one does bleating wretchedness like Gardner - no one.

Last Tango in Halifax, BBC1, episode 1, series 2 review

Last Tango in Halifax with Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid is a welcome and unmissable returnee to our wintry TV schedules.

Interview: Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid

Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid are perfectly in step, whether smashing stereotypes or snuggling up with Daniel Craig.

Review: Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid shine

As it was one of my favourite programmes of last year, I was incredibly glad to have Last Tango in Halifax back on our TV screens. The joy of the show is watching a romance that you believe in.

You don't need to be a spring chicken to flirt or fall in love - as last year's surprise hit Last Tango In Halifax certainly proved.

Seven million viewers were hooked as love-struck wrinklies Alan and Celia, both in their seventies, rediscovered their love for each other, 60 years after first meeting.

Sweet and often hilarious, the series bagged a Bafta and returns for a second run.

"At my age, to get a part like Celia is manna from heaven," admits Anne Reid, 78. "There aren't enough roles for older actresses. I feel very lucky indeed."

The first episode picks up from where we left off with Alan (Derek Jacobi) regaining consciousness from his heart scare, much to Celia's relief.

Reflecting that life's too short, they decide to get married - in a fortnight!

Elsewhere, Sarah Lancashire and Tony Gardner return as Celia's daughter Caroline and her hubby John.

He gets drunk and ends up in bed with Judith (Ronni Ancona).

"I've been in this business a long time," says excited former Corrie actress Anne, "but I've never known anything like this."

Warm, romantic and BAFTA-winning, Last Tango In Halifax was a bona-fide hit last year, neatly refuting the idea that there's no audience for "stuff about old people" on TV.

It's even getting an American remake with Diane Keaton. So it's no surprise that it has quickly been brought back, nor, given that much of its strength lies in its near real-time pace, that the story resumes moments later.

Yet pacing might prove to be an issue this year, as the reunited sweethearts Alan and Celia (Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid) are now an established couple. Having missed 60 years together, they have surely too much sense to fall out again over minor misunderstandings. Their respective daughters (Nicola Walker and Sarah Lancashire) are still entangled in complicated love lives, but this can't really take over the focus of the series from the older generation. So where will the drama lie?

In the first episode, this isn't really resolved, as Alan recovers from his health scare and Celia organises their wedding, while the younger characters continue to flail. But it's still such a warm and well-observed show - with lovely bits of dialogue and performances - that maybe it doesn't matter.

Last Tango's Anne Reid: 'Sex on TV is voyeurism'

As Last Tango in Halifax returns for a new series, its star Anne Reid tells Rachel Ward how Facebook frightens her and why 'sexing up' the hit drama would ruin it.

When are we going to call time on the panel-game format? Trawling through classic British sitcom clips and listening to Jo Brand, Rebbeca Front, Barry Cryer and this week's guest Tim Brooke-Taylor shooting the breeze is a jolly concept in itself; do we really have to pretend it's a quiz? Cryer and Brooke-Taylor should have spotted the danger given they've been playing "the antidote to panel games" since 1972 on Radio 4.

Dad's Army's Ian Lavender and dinnerladies' Anne Reid provide a vintage tint of comic triumphs past, but if this generation's trapped in squidgy sofas playing for points, who's going to be free to make the future comedy classics?