About Love Soup
If your perfect partner was out there, how would you ever know? Comedy drama Love Soup examines this question. The series is written by David Renwick, the creator of One Foot in the Grave and Jonathan Creek.
The series stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery, a modern woman with old-fashioned values. Alice is the manageress of a perfume counter in a London department store, although she lives down in Brighton for the whole of the first series. Most aspects of Alice's life are unsuccessful, for example she is unable to sell her No. 42 flat and never seems to find a loving partner.
To make matters worse, her two co-workers, Cleo Martin (Sheridan Smith) and Milly Russel (Montserrat Lombard) constantly seem to find boyfriends, although admittedly their relationships never tend to last more than a week on average. Cleo and Milly try and help Alice find a partner, but nothing seems to work.
In the first series, American Gil Raymond (Michael Landes) moves to England, he discovered that his girlfriend is seeing another man as soon as they arrive in the country and so he too is single. Alice and Gil would be perfect for each. The only problem is that they are completely unaware of each others' existence. Gil is writing an episode of a six-part romantic comedy series called Love Soup for TV producer Lloyd Drewitt (Owen Brenman). Gil's next-door neighbours Irene and Bob Andrews (Trudie Styler and Brian Protheroe) split up after Gil accidentally exposes Bob's relationship with a prostitute. Gil then begins to worry about Irene's feelings towards him.
During this first series, Alice and Gil's storylines were told separately, with the episodes cutting between the two stories as they progressed. The only exception to this was in the final scene where it is revealed that Alice and Gil are watching the same play, and they are the only two people in the audience not laughing. They still do not find each other though, despite being only two rows apart.
Michael Landes left after this series, leaving Greig's character as the sole focus of the show. The second series therefore follows only Alice's life. In this second series Alice has managed to move to London, but still has problems trying to find the perfect partner. SPOILER ALERT: During this second series, Alice attempts to meet a man via a lonely hearts advert, but her date never arrives. When she gets home, she receives a phone call from Lloyd, telling her that her date, who turns out to be Gil, cannot make it. Gil died of a heart attack.
The second series featured guest performances from Mark Heap, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Lucy Speed, Bill Bailey, Ronnie Corbett, Jan Ravens, Helen Lederer, Mackenzie Crook, Charlie Brooks and Lynda Bellingham.