Last Tango in Halifax
Last Tango in Halifax is a British comedy-drama series that began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 November 2012 until its final episode which was broadcast on 15 March 2020.[1][2] The series stars Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as Alan and Celia.[3][4][5]
Last Tango in Halifax
"Last Tango in Halifax Theme"
United Kingdom
English
5
24 (list of episodes)
60 minutes
20 November 2012 –
15 March 2020
The series has been praised for its depiction of the older generation, strong acting, and believable dialogue. A critic for The Daily Telegraph summarised the series as "a triumph against TV's ageism", and it has been endorsed by an executive member of the charity Age UK. Last Tango in Halifax accrued four nominations for the 2013 British Academy Television Awards and won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series.
Overview[edit]
Celia Dawson and Alan Buttershaw are both widowed and in their 70s. They were attracted to each other in the 1950s, but never expressed their feelings, and Celia moved away with her parents. In the present day, they are reunited after being persuaded to join Facebook by their respective grandchildren.[6] Alan has loved Celia since he was 16 years old,[7] whilst Celia is described as a woman who is "unfulfilled" and was unhappily married to a man she grew to hate.[7] After their reunion, Alan and Celia discover that they still feel as passionately for each other as they did when they were teenagers. Their story is described as a "testament of the uplifting power of love at any age".[6]
Alan and Celia's romance is depicted alongside the troubles of their own grown daughters, and the series' official description says that its portrayal of family is "as dark as it is comic".[6] Alan's daughter, Gillian, and Celia's daughter, Caroline, are complete opposites: widowed Gillian runs a farm and works part time in a supermarket,[7] whilst Oxford-educated[7] Caroline is the head of a posh private school.[6] Their parents' engagement affects both daughters' lives. Gillian wonders how she and her son will cope without her father around to help,[8] whilst Caroline, struggling with depression and her feelings for a female colleague, feels that her mother's unconventional romance gives her "permission to finally admit to being who she really is".[9]
Production[edit]
Concept and writing[edit]
The series is based on lead writer Sally Wainwright's personal experiences.[2] She described it as "the most personal thing I've ever written".[10] Her mother, Dorothy, lost contact with a childhood friend, Alec Walker,[2] when she was 15, but they reconnected on the social networking website Friends Reunited 60 years later[10] and within six months were married. When she told the story to her colleague Nicola Shindler, Shindler suggested she turn her experience into a television series. Shindler became the series' executive producer.
Through Caroline, the series explores various LGBT themes. A source of contention for Celia is her daughter entering into a same sex relationship and later coming out to her. Anne Reid spoke positively of the storyline, stating that she believes a lot of people of her own generation are homophobic. She felt that her own character "might show them [and] might change them" just as Celia must become more accepting to avoid losing Alan. Jacobi concurred: Alan has "a streak of tolerance in him ... that perhaps Celia doesn't".[11] In series three, the division between Celia and Caroline widens after Celia refuses to attend Caroline's wedding to her girlfriend. Wainwright felt that killing off Caroline's partner, Kate, would be the most effective way to propel the drama onwards and to develop the emotional lives of the remaining characters - however 'killing the lesbian' is a well-known homophobic film trope. She was conflicted over this decision, having grown attached to the character of Kate and actress Nina Sosanya, and wrote two versions of the fourth episode; the unaired one would have seen Kate survive.[12]
Possible adaptations[edit]
In October 2013, it was reported in news outlets that American actress, screenwriter and producer Diane Keaton had acquired the rights to remake Last Tango in Halifax for American audiences on the subscription cable channel HBO.[83] Sally Wainwright mentioned this development at a Broadcasting Press Guild event and stated that, though she did not expect to be closely involved in the remake, she would have an associate producer role.[83] However, the following day Red Production Company released a statement stating that a remake would probably be delayed since the original series was still airing on American channel PBS.[84] In April 2014, it was reported that the series would be remade for French television by BBC Worldwide France and the production company NEWEN.[85]