Last Tango in Halifax: a triumph against TV's ageism

The BBC's Last Tango in Halifax, starring Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as a couple who fall in love for a second time, is right to promote love for the over-60s, says Jane Shilling.

Now that Alan and Celia have accidentally been shut in a stately home, their anxious families can have a long, difficult and revelatory night as they wait for news.

It's a ridiculous plot device, but at least it allows daughters Caroline and Gillian to reach an understanding as they are locked together by worry.

As for the two elderly lovebirds (Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi), they are oblivious to the ructions back in Halifax and Harrogate, and are happily planning their future together as they play cards by candlelight. Then suddenly things get all Secrets of Crickley Hall when they hear a ghost...

It feels like a turning-point episode in Sally Wainwright's drama, when we learn more about the sorrows of the past, and everyone, particularly Caroline (Sarah Lancashire), decides it's time to seize some happiness.

"We're not burglars, we're pensioners," cries Celia (Anne Reid), spooked by the creaks and groans of Southowram Hall where she and Alan (Derek Jacobi) remain locked in. Their families are frantic over the couple's whereabouts, but the panic brings their respective daughters closer together and a tentative friendship is formed. Sally Wainwright's comedy-drama has charm in abundance, its chief joy the pairing of Reid and Jacobi, particularly delightful in tonight's episode when they spar off each other over a candlelit game of cards.

Roy Barraclough interview

Former Coronation Street star Roy Barraclough turns up in BBC1 drama Last Tango In Halifax this week. The veteran actor tells What's On TV all about his new role and reminisces about his Corrie days as Rovers landlord Alex Gilroy...

TV Ratings: Last Tango in Halifax cemented as a hit

BBC One's Last Tango in Halifax cemented itself as a ratings hit on Tuesday night, soaring above 6 million viewers.

Aged lovebirds Celia and Alan (Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi) potter happily through their new life together as their families fall apart around them. Celia's brittle daughter Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) rages against the infuriating and inept drunken man of straw she married, while Alan's daughter Gillian (Nicola Walker) is humiliated by that nasty piece of work she's sleeping with.

This all sounds desperately soapy, but it isn't, though things get a bit weird by the end with some nonsense about a haunted country house that feels like it belongs in another drama altogether.

Still, writer Sally Wainwright likes to spring surprises (and there are quite a few of those in this episode) as Alan and Celia take the next step in their relationship. Caroline, meanwhile, drops her guard in that lovely big house in Harrogate so we glimpse the well of loneliness that lies beneath her flinty exterior.

The classy silvery romcom continues. The vicar refuses to let Celia (Anne Reid) and Alan (Derek Jacobi) marry in church - well, neither of them has attended church since 1977 - so the second-time-around lovers go in search of venues for a civil ceremony. Soon they end up trapped inside a creepy medieval mansion in a storm, telling each other ghost stories. Elsewhere Gillian (Nichola Walker) tells John (Tony Gardner) he needs to stick up for himself, prompting him to return to Harrogate and tell Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) that he's moving back in.

Thankfully there's little opportunity for the reunited pensioners to get busy with the butter this week as their pesky families are all grabbing the screen time. Caroline has ditched John, but he refuses to leave the house and indulges in some decadent behaviour while listening to The Archers. Gillian has problems, too, as Raff gets a police caution for beating up Paul. And what of Alan and Celia? Well, they've obviously been busy as Celia wants to overshare the details of their love life with a reluctant Caroline, and a lack of church attendance threatens to scupper their wedding plans.

Last Tango in Halifax: an Age UK executive's view

The BBC drama about a couple in their 70s may not change the treatment of older people but at least it depicts two real, healthy and sane lead characters, says Lucy Harmer of Age UK.