Sally Wainwright

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Last Tango In Halifax is officially returning

Screenwriter Sally Wainwright will return to Last Tango after a long hiatus.

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Radio Times review

Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2015, #27:

Sally Wainwright's clever, confident love story returned, with thorns among the roses as Alan (Derek Jacobi) kept a huge secret from Celia (Anne Reid). But Celia had more than enough to think about as she turned her back on her daughter Caroline's wedding to her beloved Kate. Then there was crushing sadness to come as Wainwright, never a writer to plump up the cushions to make us comfortable, made us confront sudden death.

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.

One return I am excited about is that of Last Tango in Halifax which was announced on Twitter just after this Sunday's magnificent series three finale. Sally Wainwright's brilliant ear for dialogue was on full display as Gillian (Nicola Walker) voiced her doubts about marrying boorish childhood sweetheart Robbie (Dean Andrews). The structure of the piece saw Wainwright apply a non-linear narrative as Gillian flashed back to tell Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) about her dalliances with a younger co-worker as well as Caroline's ex-husband John (Tony Gardner). The realistic sequences were punctuated with some high comedy as Caroline struggled to change a tyre whilst wearing her Sunday best whilst Robbie looked on the verge of vomiting after overdoing it on his stag night the prior evening. Wainwright kept the audience guessing whether Gillian would marry Robbie while she also focused on the frosty relationship between Alan (Derek Jacobi) and his love child Gary (Rupert Graves). As the camera swept round the multitude of happy couples at Robbie and Gillian's wedding it reminded me just how much Wainwright had made me care about her characters. I'd wept with Caroline after she'd lost her partner and felt for Gillian as she drudged up the abuse that her late husband inflicted on her. Wainwright has been lucky to find an excellent ensemble cast who deal with her well-paced dialogue beautifully. Special mention has to go to Walker who is utterly believable, playing the likeable Gillian who is prone to making some terrible mistakes. The only criticism I have is the continued presence of Gardner's John who at this point I feel is surplus to requirements and I hope he doesn't return for series four. Apart from that though I would say that this is Last Tango's best series to date and I'm already ridiculously excited about what series four will bring.

Radio Times review

It's Gillian's wedding day as the series ends, and she won't leave the bathroom. It could be a last-minute fluttering of bride-to-be panic or it could be something deeper.

Of course, this is Last Tango, written by Sally Wainwright, so it's something much deeper than whether that charmless oaf Robbie is really the man for Gillian. And don't go expecting one of those soapy, pragmatic bits of plotting where we are left wondering will she?/won't she? just for the sake of it. Gillian (brilliant Nicola Walker) has much she needs to get off her chest and she offloads on a woman who's become a good friend, Caroline (Sarah Lancashire, also brilliant).

I love the conversations between these two - sometimes hesitant, always revealing, as they share the stuff of their souls. Gillian is weary of being dumped on by her family, while Caroline carefully puts her grief to one side to offer wise counsel.