Is there any more complexly self-referential TV show than Staged? Back for its third, and last series, Michael Sheen and David Tennant’s lockdown vehicle spent much of its time debating whether or not there should be (or have been) a third series and incorporating a “making of” documentary into the plot. Already pretty meta, this was its most meta incarnation yet, but its scheduling made it seem even more so. Previously released on Britbox late last year, it received its BBC TV premier last month at the same time as both its stars could be seen in separate outstanding dramatic projects playing the fathers of disabled daughters, and being one of those myself, this was all a bit too much at the same time. Enjoyable though it was, Staged will not be troubling my growing shortlist of the year’s best, but those other two pieces most certainly will. 

Best Interests (BBC1), another phenomenal 4-parter by the king of the format, Jack Thorne, is simply the best thing of the year so far. Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan were both brilliant and moving as the parents of a girl with a rare form of muscular dystrophy who face the agony of the decisions to be taken when she falls into a comatose state. All the issues about the decision to withdraw life-support are covered from the ethical, medical, legal and sociological standpoints, but ultimately it was about the family involved (mother, father and sister most prominently) and their different ways of coping with the situation. Indeed, I felt that the real subject was their different ways of passing through the inevitable departure of a dearly loved one and ultimately letting go. Marnie’s life expectancy was always going to be limited (indeed, it is mentioned at one point that she had exceeded expectations) but they all needed to go through an inevitable ritual. For Horgan’s character, this took the form of the legal fight for treatment to continue, but it was the personal reactions which resonated most and brought out the best in the actors. The scene in which Marnie’s life-support systems were turned off was wrenching in the extreme but was followed by a serene coda which hinted at reconciliation – both with the sense of loss and with each other. 

There She Goes (BBC2) followed the evening after the conclusion of Best Interests.Following two outstanding series (covered in my blogs of November 2018 and October 2020), this was an hour-long special which continue the story of learning-disabled Rosie (Miley Locke) and her family (David Tennant, Jessica Hynes and Edan Hayhurst), possibly also bringing it to a conclusion. It remained uncannily like our own lives, though, unlike us, the family finally received a diagnosis of Rosie’s condition, which put them in touch with other families in the same situation. This led to a very neat (and very meta) ending in which they met up with the real-life family whose experiences are the basis of the series – writer Shaun Pye, his wife Sarah Crawford and their daughter Joey. The captions at the end informed us of the background to the special and it has since been trailed, for the first time, as “based on a true story”. So, fiction met reality and seems to have come full circle, but there are still plenty of issues to explore around the experience of parenting and learning disability and I hope this is not the end of it. 

Scheduling There She Goes directly after Best Interests would seem to be a bit of a mistake in normal circumstances, but having Staged in there as well gave it a little more coherence (on a meta level) in terms of the presence of Sheen and Tennant and maybe that was part of the thinking. 

I referred above to my growing 2023 shortlist but will need to go back a bit in my next blog to expand on that. I have virtually written it already, but I wanted to get my thoughts on the programmes mentioned in this blog down first, so things are a bit out of order. In fact, I actually have two other blogs almost ready, but haven’t yet finished them due to a combination of being both busy and lazy, if that makes sense. Anyway, I’ll be back soon.