'Last Tango in Halifax' series 3 commissioned with series 2 headed to PBS in June 2014.

On: December 28, 2013,  By: Bill Young

When several of us were attending the BBC Showcase in Liverpool back in February 2013, we ran across a gem of a series that has since taken both the UK and U.S. by storm. That little ‘gem’ just happened to be the future BAFTA award winner for Best Drama Series, Last Tango in Halifax. Starring Sir Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as would-be childhood sweethearts Alan and Celia who are reunited after 60 years through Facebook, Last Tango in Halifax takes viewers on a roller coaster ride as their lives collide for a second time and we watch Alan and Celia lament over what might have been as they take us on a life-affirming journey of what can still happen.
 
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On the surface, this is a maximum feel good story which is a testament of the uplifting power of love at any age. Underneath the brilliant Sally Wainwright (Scott & Bailey) script, however, the story digs deep into the lives of both families. As with virtually every British drama and/or comedy, the supporting cast is equally as brilliant. Headed by Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker who star as Caroline, Celia’s daughter, and Gillian, Alan’s daughter, the dysfunctional families are also reunited just as the two central characters.

With series 2 having just finished transmitting on BBC One Christmas Eve, it was announced on the same day that a series 3 would begin filming in 2014 with a target premiere date in November 2014. Series 2 in the U.S. on PBS has a tentative broadcast date of June 2014.

If you haven’t had a chance to see this yet, put it in your viewing queue now and enjoy.

In: Actors/Actresses,Drama

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  • Bunny

    Best. Show. Ever!
    I live in the U.S., and just watched the final episode of Season 2. It was so wonderful, but OMG, now I have to wait almost another year to see more.
    Why are there so few episodes per season (only 6 in each of the first two seasons) – is that standard for British TV shows? Most U.S. shows have between 15 and 24 episodes per season or year.
    Derek Jacobi is an amazing actor. Even though I know he’s gay, I actually find him more ‘realistic’ in Last Tango than in Vicious. But he is great in both.

    • Bunny, I totally agree with you about Last Tango in Halifax. Brilliantly done. As you may have guessed over the years, it’s quite common for British dramas and comedies to have no more than 10 episode per season and as few as 6. In virtually all of the cases, it’s partly due to the fact that there is only one writer that writes the entire series. U.S. series have teams of writers that will crank out upwards to 26 new episode per year. Conventional wisdom says that this style of writing leads to uneven programs within a series from a quality standpoint so the British way of producing series is to have fewer episodes with all of them being quite high from a standards standpoint. In many cases, too, the actors are in high demand (i.e. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in Sherlock) who cannot commit to more than a few months to film the 3-4 episodes every two years.

      You are absolutely correct in your assessment of the talents of Derek Jacobi. From the early days of I Claudius to Vicious to Last Tango in Halifax and everything in-between, he is amazing. Thanks for reading Tellyspotting. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.