Ian doesn't have a job – he's been made redundant, and the holiday came out of his pay-off. It's telling that Marriage is written by Stefan Golaszewski, best-known for the poignant comedy Mum, starring Lesley Manville Life's like that, of course – our unique sorrows are incomprehensible to outsiders, however wearily commonplace they are to us. It's all terribly sad and sadder still for being so mundane. That was enough to set off sniping and recriminations all the way to the gate and onto the plane.īy the time the seatbelt signs came on they were hissing f-words at each other.Īs the layers of their marriage slowly peeled back, it became clear that they were returning to a home stacked high with the debris of old problems. And the sachets of ketchup were 30 cents each. Ian fancied a jacket potato, but Emma came back with chips. In the opening scene, at an airport restaurant on their way home from Spain, they seemed to be arguing over nothing. It was a perfect evocation of a relationship so close that each one knows what the other will say before they've opened their mouths.īut, despite the love that wraps around them like a duvet, there is a lot of tension in this marriage. Like a draught under the door, he felt the disapproval and wriggled his slippers back on.
His wife said nothing, just a sideways flick of the eyes. I suspect almost every British woman of a certain age, however posh, would settle for a lifetime of holidays in Torremolinos if it meant sharing a bed with Sean. Emma is played by Nicola Walker and Sean Bean is Ian. The only hint of fantasy in this depiction of suburban life is the casting. Where's the designer fridge? The marble-topped island? Where's the wine rack? Is that a bedroom without an ensuite bathroom? Am I really watching THE BBC? But the Beeb drama department rarely acknowledges their existence.Ĭouples in prime-time serials are expected to have bifold doors opening onto landscaped gardens with firepits and off-road parking. These are the people of Middle England – the mainstay of the nation. They holiday on the Costa del Sol, but stick to 'normal restaurants'. Loading the dishwasher is a nightly ritual they could do blindfolded. Emma and Ian are ordinary people – and, whisper it, they're starring in a BBC drama.
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