My current favorite TV show.

I discovered this PBS show quite a while after it first started airing, and now I’m completely hooked. Last Tango in Halifax is a sweet drama about two former classmates reuniting via Facebook after 60 years. I watched all of Season One over the course of a few days. It is a tender, sweet, hilarious English family drama.

At the center of the story are Allan (Sir Derek Jacobi, a very accomplished and well-known classical English actor. Jacobi is also currently starring, along with Ian McKellan, in another fun PBS show, Vicious, about an elderly gay couple who have been together  in a love/hate relationship for 48 years.) and Celia (Anne Reid, a highly decorated British actress) , two 70+ people who fall in love after enduring long and less than perfect marriages to spouses who have since died.

The actors beautifully capture the awe and delicate magic of discovering love very late in life. Their story is complicated by the complex and very modern problems facing their daughters and extended families. The writing is so good, the dialogue is believable and the characters are fully developed, and complex. It’s quite racy, but everyone speaks in a lilting English accent so it all seems completely sophisticated and reasonable.

Allan and Celia face condescension, class, religious and political differences, problems in and between their families, health problems, questions about the afterlife and old age. It’s fascinating story with real issues and real characters of all ages that you almost never see on TV.

In addition to the older couple, and their families, there is another character I adore – the English countryside and its rolling green hills, mist and timeless beauty.

I’m just starting Season Two and I think it is an absolute treasure. It’s available on Netflix. Please give it a look and let me know what you think!

Here are a few links from around the world wide web I hope you enjoy:

Three classic Italian towns.

Why children of the 70s should all be dead. Love it.

Surprising things about motherhood around the world.

Tips on taking better camera phone photos.

Recipes for all the summer zucchini.

Dogs and their preternatural sense of smell.

What causes ice cream headaches.

What are you watching these days? Tell me your stories!