Mum

Comedy is the new drama

It's sitcoms, not police thrillers, tackling the deep issues.

When bad sitcoms turn good

Every time a new series of Benidorm starts I watch the first episode. I like to have an open mind and I like to think that maybe this time it'll become my favourite show. But no it doesn't. Rigid? Me? But in the last week there have been a couple of sitcoms where I've had to do a critical u-turn.

Mum: Why great British comedy can make us laugh and cry

It probably sounds really daft, but my favourite comedies are the ones that make me cry. Whilst the majority of us watch comedy to laugh it's the sign of a real comedy if you can get so attached to those on screen that you can cry at them or with them too.

Kelly and Jason are off on holiday: she's got her Marmite and her "lucky rocks" and everyone's come round to help them pack. As usual, Cathy and Michael are trampled on but their interaction doesn't quite stick to the formula: this will be the episode the wonderful stars Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan both submit to the Bafta jury.

How Mum creator relit our love for sitcom

Stefan Golaszewski has written two of the BBC's best-received sitcoms of recent years. Him & Her took viewers into the lives of 20-somethings Steve and Becky in their cramped flat in London. Mum - starring Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) - is pulling in viewers with its painfully tentative romance between recently widowed Cathy and old friend Michael.

Another deft episode of the sitcom where Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan act out an almost unbearably subtle romance, and everyone else carries on with broad jabs at lower-middle-class boors. While the idiots discuss clowns, sex and barbecuing, Cathy and Michael shuffle another half-inch closer. At this rate, they'll be shagging by season 14.

Mum, which has returned for a thoroughly deserved second series (with a third already commissioned), has been described, wrongly to my mind, as "gentle" - normally a killer blow to any comedy's self-respect. True, nothing much happens as Lesley Manville's Cathy, widowed at the opening of the first series, turns a wistful 60, her contemplation of the moment wholly shot by the scattergun inanities of her son's girlfriend, Kelly, swinging her heels on the rickety kitchen table ("It's wobbly, isn't it! I'm worried it's going to break!"). But behind Manville's wearily kind eyes, everything is going on in these nothings. Wrangles over family, over forgiveness, over whether and how far to indulge the blitherings of a spoiled generation - and they don't come much more blithery than Kelly (Lisa McGrillis), possibly the finest room-temperature IQ since Father Dougal.

Nothing (and everything) continues to happen as we meet, handily enough, Cathy's splendidly foul-mouthed parents, her inept brother Derek, his scene-stealing gorgon of a girlfriend, Pauline - Dorothy Atkinson, itch-febrile with societal one-upmanship. And, of course, Cathy's putative love interest, shy pal Michael, his every hesitant tenderness rebuffed by his own personality.

There's one scene, Michael and brother Derek passing a moment with small talk, which writer Stefan Golaszewski simply took to wicked, Ayckbournesque lengths. "I cut my toenails this morning," Derek tells Michael, who can only smile and nod helplessly. Derek feels the need to fill the void. "Yeah. So... got a lot more room in my socks." "Um... good feeling?" "One of the best, mate. One. Of. The. Best." It perfectly encapsulates the appalling slide into well-meaning drivel that can befall the best of us. In this, the silence of a banality left hanging, Mum excels, as (of course) do Manville, and Peter Mullan as Michael.

If there's a criticism, it's that at times it feels like it's only sane, bright, selfless Cathy and Michael against the gaggle of grotesques in their world. I also wonder just how much thicker Kelly can be made to look, and whether the comic potentials of the word "carvery" weren't exhausted around 1977. But these are mere niggles. A true delight.

Although completely different in terms of quality, Stefan Golaszewski's Mum shares similarities with Hold the Sunset as both feature women-of-a-certain age trying to balance relationships with their sons with the idea of new romances with men they've known for years. Now in its second year, Mum reunites us with Cathy (Lesley Manville) on her sixtieth birthday as her family prepare to take out for a carvery at a local pub. Golaszewski quickly reunites us with all of the series' main players most notably Cathy's dimwit son Jason (Sam Swainsbury) and his ditzy girlfriend Kelly (Lisa McGrillis) who surprise her with a collection of banners and balloons adorning the house which inform the neighbours of her age. What I love so much about Mum is the small conversations that Golaszewski is so brilliant at crafting including Pauline (Dorothy Atkinson), the partner of Cathy's brother Derek (Ross Boatman), asking her about what a carvery involves. Snobbish Pauline is a brilliant creation and her trying to figure out what the three types of potatoes served at Cathy's birthday dinner provides one of many hilarious moments. Also on hand to celebrate Cathy's 60th is Michael (Peter Mullan); one of her late husband Dave's best friends and someone who is clearly besotted with her. The last series of Mum built up to Michael and Cathy holding hands, and it appears that this series will focus on whether these long-time friends will begin a romantic relationship. However, it appears as if Michael is still reticent about whether he will reveal his true feelings for Cathy especially as Jason doesn't seem to be his biggest fan. The other big storyline throughout this series appears to be Jason and Kelly's search for a new flat and the fact that this will result in Cathy living alone. The brilliant thing about Mum is that it's set over a year meaning that Golaszewski can create realistic reasons why the main characters would be in Cathy's house all at once. It also allows the central stories to move along quite quickly with the audience having to fill in the gaps of what's happened to the characters since the last episode. Although not up there with some of the best episodes of series one, the series two opener of Mum still had some funny moments whilst also setting out the big stories that will populate the next five weeks. Manville continues to be brilliant in the lead role whilst Mullan's subtle performance as Michael is beautifully realised and Atkinson steals almost every scene she's in as the ghastly Pauline. Overall, Mum is a well-observed and brilliantly written series and I'm so glad that a third series has already been announced as I just love spending time with these characters.

Peter Mullan's performance is as satisfying as everything else in Stefan Golaszewski's perfectly tuned piece about a family finding their way through loss. It is a tough gig to make a comedy out of such circumstances, but with just the right blend of light and shade, and a generous slug of spectacular swearing from grandad, Mum brings home the bacon.

Mum review - cliched take on the reality of being a mum

Lesley Manville suffuses her character with warmth and melancholy, but there is more to motherhood than 'keep calm and carry on ironing'.