Derek Jacobi

Review: Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid shine

As it was one of my favourite programmes of last year, I was incredibly glad to have Last Tango in Halifax back on our TV screens. The joy of the show is watching a romance that you believe in.

You don't need to be a spring chicken to flirt or fall in love - as last year's surprise hit Last Tango In Halifax certainly proved.

Seven million viewers were hooked as love-struck wrinklies Alan and Celia, both in their seventies, rediscovered their love for each other, 60 years after first meeting.

Sweet and often hilarious, the series bagged a Bafta and returns for a second run.

"At my age, to get a part like Celia is manna from heaven," admits Anne Reid, 78. "There aren't enough roles for older actresses. I feel very lucky indeed."

The first episode picks up from where we left off with Alan (Derek Jacobi) regaining consciousness from his heart scare, much to Celia's relief.

Reflecting that life's too short, they decide to get married - in a fortnight!

Elsewhere, Sarah Lancashire and Tony Gardner return as Celia's daughter Caroline and her hubby John.

He gets drunk and ends up in bed with Judith (Ronni Ancona).

"I've been in this business a long time," says excited former Corrie actress Anne, "but I've never known anything like this."

Warm, romantic and BAFTA-winning, Last Tango In Halifax was a bona-fide hit last year, neatly refuting the idea that there's no audience for "stuff about old people" on TV.

It's even getting an American remake with Diane Keaton. So it's no surprise that it has quickly been brought back, nor, given that much of its strength lies in its near real-time pace, that the story resumes moments later.

Yet pacing might prove to be an issue this year, as the reunited sweethearts Alan and Celia (Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid) are now an established couple. Having missed 60 years together, they have surely too much sense to fall out again over minor misunderstandings. Their respective daughters (Nicola Walker and Sarah Lancashire) are still entangled in complicated love lives, but this can't really take over the focus of the series from the older generation. So where will the drama lie?

In the first episode, this isn't really resolved, as Alan recovers from his health scare and Celia organises their wedding, while the younger characters continue to flail. But it's still such a warm and well-observed show - with lovely bits of dialogue and performances - that maybe it doesn't matter.

How Ronnie Barker almost got the lead in 'I, Claudius'

Sir Derek Jacobi has revealed that he was in fact the fifth actor to be offered the starring role in I, Claudius, behind Charlton Heston and Ronnie Barker among others.

If awkwardness were an Olympic event, Arthur Strong would be a gold medallist. The music-hall aficionado staggers around as if glued to an ironing board, and has to forcibly eject words as if passing a kidney stone. Like that other fully realised comic character John Shuttleworth, he polarises opinion, but to his loyal fans the Count is cryingly funny.

There are shades of Hancock this week as our delusional artiste lands a part in a radio play (the way he deflates the pseuds' corner of a read-through is delicious). As in previous weeks, the plot is small but neat. And the modern practice of injecting dramatic heft into sitcom (Tom Hollander in Rev, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi in Vicious and now Rory Kinnear as Arthur's unfortunate new best friend) is paying rich rewards. The series has been recomissioned after just one episode - take note, Ben Elton. Long live Count Arthur!

Vicious (ITV) exited as it entered, a high-camp frolic with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi hamming it up like there was no tomorrow. The unapologetic portrayal of old-school gayness got up noses in some quarters, cited as evidence that TV has still not embraced sexual equality. Queerly, to me, it felt like the exact opposite.

The existence of Vicious seemed to suggest that TV was comfortable enough in its own skin to not give two figs about only showing a politically correct approved version of gay lifestyles.

Freddie and Stuart were riotous throwbacks, bitchy old queens from another era, but in between the barbs and the one-liners, these were recognisable characters. To deny their existence would surely be the politically incorrect thing.

Taken on its own level as a tribute to the old tradition of West End farce, McKellen and Jacobi's Vicious was worth a cheap laugh, an added treat being the presence of Marcia Warren and Frances de la Tour, who really should have a show of their own. And how refreshing to have a man in his seventies tell his mother-in-law: 'You're old, you're eating buttons.' Now that's anti-ageism.

The waspish insults are flying around with gay abandon as cranky lovebirds Stuart (Derek Jacobi) and Freddie (Ian McKellen) hurtle to the end of this camp caper with a party to celebrate their 49th year of bitchy bliss. Drama queen Freddie harbours fond notions of Dame Judi Dench turning up for the festivities. After all, they once spent 12 hours eating chocolates together on a sweeties ad. As for Stuart, young neighbour Ash has put him in a really tight spot...

Though never quite as outrageous - or funny - as advertised, the first series of this ITV sitcom has remained watchable thanks to the hammed-up, camped-up performances of its leads Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. The final episode of the show's current run is on Monday and features another high-profile thesp in Judi Dench.

This is the strangest episode so far, as Stuart (Derek Jacobi) and Freddie (Ian McKellen) invite young Ash (Iwan Rheon) and his new girlfriend Chloe (Alexandra Roach) to dinner and then behave abominably towards her.

Trouble is, Chloe is lovey-dovey, airy-fairy, vegan and teetotal - in short, incredibly annoying - but before long the wicked pair have brought out her own vicious streak. I don't want to oversell the comedy, because a lot of it is lame, but the tone veers towards Joe Orton.

This is also the show to turn to if you've longed to see Frances de la Tour (Violet) handcuffed to a bed in Argentina dressed in PVC bondage gear. Any takers?

Already it's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago ITV's first foray into sitcom territory for some time was regarded as a bit of a risky proposition. It was a bold decision to base a sitcom around a gay couple, particularly a pair in advanced years, considering TVs usually squeamish attitude to anybody over 40. Likewise there was a risk that a studio-based comedy, complete with a live audience, would seem old-fashioned in comparison to the darker, comedies that have dominated the schedules during the last decade.

The show turned out to be popular with critics and audiences alike, aided by the considerable star power of Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi in the lead roles of Freddie and Stuart, not to mention the appeal of France De La Tour, playing an older, evil version of her much-loved alter ego, Miss Jones in Rising Damp.

For Jacobi, it's the quality of writer Gary Janetti's scripts that really provided the magic ingredient: "They are really special... a unique combination of reality, truth and gags, and the gags work so well because they're based in reality".