No Offence: a distasteful end to a promising series

Far too many films and TV shows exploit rape as a dramatic device. Anarchic police procedural No Offence (Channel 4) concluded with not one but two such sexual violence storylines in a confused and misfiring finale.

Review: No Offence returns and we couldn't be happier.

On a beautiful September's evening, I along with an audience of lucky people and cast members attended the premiere screening of the opening episode of No Offence series three and a cast Q&A (more on that this week)

Mum: season two finale review

Would Cathy and Michael's on-off romance finally be well and truly on? The finale kept us guessing till the end.

Mum, episode 6, Fireworks Night, BBC2 review

This episode is ultimately about Cathy and Michael.

Mum, series two: ending that doesn't disappoint

Oh, Cathy, Oh, Michael. What sheer televisual joy.

Will sitcom's odd couple bow out with a kiss?

It has made us weep, laugh and scream. As Mum concludes, Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan explain why its slow-burn romance is so compelling.

Lesley Manville continues to charm gently as the mother in question, facing an awkward reunion with Michael after a summer apart. As the rest of the family buzz around being gloriously annoying (particularly the tact-free wonder that is Kelly, played by Lisa McGrillis) you can't help but wish that they could get some time alone.

Lisa McGrillis interview

Mum's Lisa McGrillis spills the beans on this next week's finale and why the show has become one of TV's best-loved comedies.

Mum, which has returned for a thoroughly deserved second series (with a third already commissioned), has been described, wrongly to my mind, as "gentle" - normally a killer blow to any comedy's self-respect. True, nothing much happens as Lesley Manville's Cathy, widowed at the opening of the first series, turns a wistful 60, her contemplation of the moment wholly shot by the scattergun inanities of her son's girlfriend, Kelly, swinging her heels on the rickety kitchen table ("It's wobbly, isn't it! I'm worried it's going to break!"). But behind Manville's wearily kind eyes, everything is going on in these nothings. Wrangles over family, over forgiveness, over whether and how far to indulge the blitherings of a spoiled generation - and they don't come much more blithery than Kelly (Lisa McGrillis), possibly the finest room-temperature IQ since Father Dougal.

Nothing (and everything) continues to happen as we meet, handily enough, Cathy's splendidly foul-mouthed parents, her inept brother Derek, his scene-stealing gorgon of a girlfriend, Pauline - Dorothy Atkinson, itch-febrile with societal one-upmanship. And, of course, Cathy's putative love interest, shy pal Michael, his every hesitant tenderness rebuffed by his own personality.

There's one scene, Michael and brother Derek passing a moment with small talk, which writer Stefan Golaszewski simply took to wicked, Ayckbournesque lengths. "I cut my toenails this morning," Derek tells Michael, who can only smile and nod helplessly. Derek feels the need to fill the void. "Yeah. So... got a lot more room in my socks." "Um... good feeling?" "One of the best, mate. One. Of. The. Best." It perfectly encapsulates the appalling slide into well-meaning drivel that can befall the best of us. In this, the silence of a banality left hanging, Mum excels, as (of course) do Manville, and Peter Mullan as Michael.

If there's a criticism, it's that at times it feels like it's only sane, bright, selfless Cathy and Michael against the gaggle of grotesques in their world. I also wonder just how much thicker Kelly can be made to look, and whether the comic potentials of the word "carvery" weren't exhausted around 1977. But these are mere niggles. A true delight.