Anne Reid

A fixture on our best of the year list since it began in 2012, Last Tango in Halifax proved once again to be one of the best dramas on the BBC this year. Sally Wainwright's characters are so well drawn coupled with wonderful performances from Sarah Lancashire, Nicola Walker and Anne Reid. It's a series that never takes the obvious direction and still provides its audience with surprises.

Anne Reid says series 4 of Last Tango will be last

Anne Reid has revealed that the next season of Last Tango in Halifax will be the drama's last.

Radio Times review

Caroline has to adapt to her dramatic new family circumstances and she's finding it hard, but for once her mum Celia is kind and sympathetic. Of course, Celia refused to attend her daughter's wedding to Kate, but life ebbs and flows, and grievances can't be nursed for long.

Writer Sally Wainwright is so gifted and assured when it comes to calling out to our emotions: no one is more precise at picking apart the mechanics of relationships, particularly relationships between women. She's blessed with a great cast and there are some scenes tonight between Anne Reid and Sarah Lancashire (Celia and Caroline) that will take away pieces of your heart.

But Last Tango isn't just about a mother and daughter; it's about the trials of a big extended family, including Gillian (Nicola Walker), who's about to take a big leap.

Anne Reid interview

The Last Tango In Halifax star on life, love, ageing and the role which has made her an unexpected sex symbol.

Last Tango in Halifax began it's third series late last year and reunited us with Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) as well as their respective broods. I've been a fan of Last Tango since it first began and particularly liked the darker second series which explored the past of Gillian (Nicola Walker) in a lot more detail. With Last Tango's writer Sally Wainwright busying herself with Happy Valley in 2014, I felt that she may not have enough time to wholly devote herself to a third series of this excellent family drama. These fears were compounded by the major story running throughout the first episode in which it was revealed that Alan had a secret son, Gary (Rupert Graves), who was the result of a brief affair Alan had conducted. The introduction of Gary to me felt like a way of just putting another obstacle in the way of the drama's central couple's happiness. However, after a lacklustre opener, Last Tango really kicked in in episode two as the emotional fallout from Gary's arrival started to take its toll on Celia. Celia's realisation that Alan wasn't completely perfect left her reeling and as a result she decided not to attend the wedding of her daughter Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) and her partner Kate (Nina Sosanya). This second episode completely restored my faith in Wainwright's storytelling abilities and it's clear that she knows her characters inside out, a fact witnessed by the icy way Caroline ejected Alan from her wedding.

Indeed, as somebody who has watched the series since it first started, I feel like I know these characters and therefore their reactions feel utterly genuine. That's possibly why I initially rejected the introduction of Gary into the series, however episode two gave Rupert Graves the opportunity to flesh out the character a little more. But Last Tango in Halifax wouldn't be nearly as good as it is if it were not for the drama's four central performers. Last series I found that both Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid had taken somewhat of a backseat to their younger counterparts, however the opening episodes of series three have really put them back in the spotlight. Reid has been particularly good in bringing out the pricklier aspects of Celia's character and in particular her truly feelings about Caroline's sexuality. One of Reid's strengths is her ability to convey her emotions through a couple of facial expressions that allow the audience to know exactly what she's thinking. Though she's not been as prominent a presence as she was in series two, Nicola Walker has still been magnificent and showed a skill for comic timing during a particularly memorable scene in episode two. But so far this series has belonged to the excellent Sarah Lancashire who, as Caroline, has presented her frustration with Celia in a believable manner. Lancashire portrays Caroline as a formidable yet vulnerable woman whose cool exterior has started to melt thanks to her relationship with Kate. Ultimately, after a shaky start, it's great to have our Yorkshire friends back with us for a third series of Last Tango. Whilst I hope that Wainwright finds a way to reunite the characters once again, I feel that the actors are doing a great job of telling the writer's brilliantly constructed story and I for one hope the series runs and runs.

Following the "happily ever after" plot tie-ups of the last run, it has been intriguing to watch Sally Wainwright's attempt to sustain interest in series three of her mostly wonderful two-family drama. The introduction of Rupert Graves as Alan's surprise son has yet to really take, but with a cast this good (particularly Anne Reid as Celia) there's little cause for concern.

Radio Times review

Caroline and Kate's big day is approaching, but snippy Celia still refers to her daughter's upcoming nuptials as if they are written in italics, or with inverted commas, as in "It's the day before the... wedding".

Oh dear, the prickles on Celia's personality are drawing blood all over the place in Sally Wainwright's bittersweet family drama. Wainwright - and the mighty Anne Reid - are so clever. Celia could easily have been written and acted as a nice, comfy old dear who's found late-life happiness.

Instead she's a complicated woman made brittle by betrayal, wounded by the antics of an adulterous husband. The scars have never healed and Celia judges everyone by the toughest of standards. It makes her hard to like, but it also makes her only too human. Her husband Alan tries to make peace but he's unwisely keeping a big secret from her.

Radio Times review

There's a lovely opening to the third series of Sally Wainwright's warm, spiky drama as Alan tells Celia a funny shaggy-dog story over their Valentine's Day meal.

It's so typical of Wainwright, who has such a wonderful eye and ear for the little moments in relationships, the daft jokes and the shared humour. You'll be glad that she and Last Tango are back.

Alan and Celia (Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid) are settling into married life. But this story has never been just about them. Celia's daughter Caroline (Bafta-winner Sarah Lancashire) is settling into life with her beloved, pregnant Kate (Nina Sosanya). And Gillian (Nicola Walker), once so unhappy in that grim farm on the moor, has a date with a handsome man (played by Rupert Graves).

It's simply good to see everyone again, even though we know that this will never be, thank heavens, a story full of hearts and flowers. There are thorns, too.

It is amazing what can be achieved in half an hour with just a great script, an excellent cast and a large wardrobe. Written by and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Inside No. 9 is a series of self-contained comedy dramas set in buildings or spaces numbered nine.

Episode one set a very high standard indeed, with an exquisitely crafted tale of jealousy, revenge, ambition, snobbery and murder centred around a country house game of sardines. With each new player discovering the hiding place, the wardrobe fills not only with bodies, but also hidden agendas, strained relationships, sinister backstories and rancid sweat (one eager participant, Smelly John, hadn't washed since he was a teenager).

No review of Shearsmith and Pemberton's work is complete without the adjectives dark and comic getting a mention, and I'm not about to break with tradition. But Inside No. 9 also offered poignancy, tension, intelligence, horror and several surprises. The lean, mean narrative didn't just twist and turn, it folded back upon itself to provide a totally unexpected, profoundly disturbing and deeply satisfying denouement. Even Smelly John's personal hygiene problem was revealed to be integral to the plot, rather than a mere comedy contrivance.

The writers also put in great performances as a bickering gay couple, supported by an impressively stellar cast that included Timothy West, Anna Chancellor, Marc Wootton and Anne Reid.

Inside No. 9, the new series from League of Gentlemen and Psychoville creators Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, is steeped in a love of shows like Tales Of The Unexpected and Twilight Zone.

Those classic series, like BBC2's Inside No. 9, featured standalone stories each week - most of which had a heart of darkness and ended with a ghoulish twist.

One of my earliest TV memories was watching a Tales Of The Unexpected episode called 'Lamb To The Slaughter' in which a housewife bludgeons her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then feeds the investigating detectives the cooked murder weapon. Totally inappropriate for an eight-year-old to be allowed to watch, of course, but that's what babysitters are for.

Combining jet-black humour and the macabre is something Shearsmith and Pemberton are obviously masters of, and the first episode - called Sardines - had just enough of both to make it a joy to watch. The name refers to the party game in which guests play hide and seek and the 'finder' has to join the 'hider'.

In this case the party guests - including Anne Reid, Katherine Parkinson, Tim Key and Timothy West - all found themselves hiding in an old Victorian wardrobe.

Despite such a simple conceit (almost all of the episode took place within the confines of the wardrobe) Shearsmith and Pemberton still managed to inject the story with their trademark creepiness and dread.

They lured us in with oddball characters to laugh at but then landed a sucker punch of a finale that came with a murderous twist and allusions to paedophilia.

The freedom of anthology shows such as this allows the stories to go literally anywhere - and with Shearsmith and Pemberton at the helm, that's a scary but mouth-watering prospect.