SOFT CENTRES (THE LOVERS)

© Sky Atlantic

They call it the "meet cute'.

It's that moment in romcoms where two would-be lovers meet for the first time usually in hilarious circumstances.

No matter how different they are, from that moment love will somehow find a way of bringing them together.

Love always conquers all.

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David Ireland's new six part Sky Atlantic series 'The Lovers' is an unashamedly enthusiastic romcom.

It has all the romcom ingredients you'd expect like a potential love rival, one or two missed rendezvous, big romantic gestures and comic mishaps that threaten to derail the love affair.

But this miniseries also gives the genre and especially the "meet cute" a typically dark Belfast twist.

Roisin Gallagher's east Belfast supermarket assistant Janet is depressed.

© Sky Atlantic

She's so depressed, she presses a sawn off shotgun under her jaw as she slouches up against the backyard wall of her two up, two down house.

Janet's about to pull the trigger when she looks to the Heavens and sees Johnny Flynn's TV and radio presenter Seamus O'Hannigan suddenly appearing above her in a state of panic, trying to scale her wall.

Seamus is trying to evade loyalist youths who have disrupted the filming of a promo for his new politics TV show.

A younger version of Andrew Marr, they've chased him down some alleyways and as he struggles to climb the wall, Janet is startled. 

She drops the gun and it goes off, causing the youths to scatter.

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Suddenly she's having to deal with a petrified, politely spoken Englishman in her kitchen seeking shelter.

We soon learn Janet is depressed because her husband has left her.

Seamus has been sent to Belfast to front a TV show on Westminster politics in front of a live studio audience.

As a vain, fame hungry broadcaster, he is a bit taken back by the choice of location but embraces the opportunity to connect with a city his mother fled during the Troubles before he was born.

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His sudden arrival into Janet's life rattles her.

Janet's Christian faith leads her to believe his appearance is a sign from God.

Seamus isn't religious.

Initially he's a little put out that neither she nor the vast majority of people he encounters in Belfast seem to know who he is despite being the presenter of a TV show.

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He is, however, charmed by Janet's flinty personality and soon they are arranging to meet up in the city's luxury Merchant Hotel.

The big barrier standing in the way of a relationship is Seamus has a famous girlfriend, Alice Eve's screen actress Frankie.

But they still embark on a tentative affair.

When Frankie makes a surprise visit to Belfast, encountering the lovers together in the city's trendy Cathedral Quarter, they pretend Janet's a relative who he has only just discovered.

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Will Seamus and Janet be able to properly explore their feelings for each other?

Will Frankie discover Janet is not Seamus's relative?

How will Janet and Seamus overcome their different backgrounds and their different beliefs?

And where the hell did Janet get that shotgun?

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David Ireland has built a reputation for himself in recent years as an exciting voice in Northern Irish theatre.

He's probably best known for writing 'Cyprus Avenue' - a provocative black comedy about an east Belfast loyalist who becomes convinced his granddaughter looks a bit like the former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

A winner of an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Play, his play about identity and deep rooted post-conflict trauma was performed to huge acclaim in London, Belfast and New York and was broadcast on BBC4.

Ireland followed it up with the well received satire 'Ulster American' about an Oscar winning actor working on a play that he believe will connect him to his Irish roots with a Northern Irish playwright who is adamant she is British and an ambitious director.

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So he unquestionably has form when it comes to creating hard hitting satire and that makes for an intriguing mix when fused with the romcom genre in this show.

'The Lovers' really revels in its east Belfast setting - its flute bands, its loyalist paramilitary murals, the Union flag bunting, the shipyard cranes, the red brick houses and the locally run supermarkets.

Ireland also proudly celebrates the no nonsense directness of Belfast people.

But he is also very much alive to the changing nature of his hometown - its transformation into a much more cosmopolitan, outward looking city.

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Director Justin Martin and his cinematographer, Emily Almond Barr make great use of various locations in the city - especially Commercial Court with its beautifully illuminated umbrellas outside the Duke of York bar.

However like Belfast, not everything in 'The Lovers' works.

Some gags don't land as you would like them to.

The conceit of having Seamus front a live TV show about Westminster politics in front of a studio audience seems a little far fetched - even more so in front of a Belfast audience. 

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But when the gags do land, they tend to be laugh out loud funny.

It's an uneven but charming, rough around the edges show.

Its biggest asset is its spirited cast - particularly the two leads who gel very well together. 

The clash between Janet's earthy Northern Irishness and Seamus's rambling posh boy persona works.

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Of the two, Gallagher probably comes out the stronger.

Her spiky comic delivery and her tapping into Janet's sensitivities around her class feels fresher than Flynn's highly polished and well executed Hugh Grant routine.

The disparities between their characters' backgrounds is central to its charm.

As for the rest of the cast, Conleth Hill is a joy as Janet's kind, yet often irritated boss Philip - although it's a pity we only see him in two episodes.

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When he is finally given some slack in the final episode, Hill is so much fun you kind of wish he was given more to do throughout the run.

Jenn Murray is good value too as Janet's chatterbox colleague, Gemma.

Alice Eve has always been adept at playing fickle blonde bombshells and is perfectly cast as Frankie.

Evelyn Miller and Simon Paisley Day amuse as Seamus's increasingly frustrated producer and his fawning director.

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Sunetra Sarker and Roger Barclay turn up briefly as UK Government ministers appearing on Seamus's talk show but not long enough to make a real impression.

Paul Riley, though, from the BBC Scotland sitcom 'Still Game,' has a hilarious cameo as a cab driver in an episode set in London.

Indeed some of the show's best moments involve peripheral characters like when Seamus encounters Abigail McGibbon and David Ireland's aggressive corner shopkeepers Maggie and Charlie in east Belfast.

With needle drops from emerging Northern Irish acts like the Robacobra Quartet, Ryan McMullan, Dea Matrona and the loyalist rapper Young Spencer as well as established artists Steve Winwood, The Vaccines, D:Ream, Blondie and The Velvet Underground, it's nice to see Belfast pitched as a romcom city.

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What you end up with is a romantic sitcom that's a bit 'Educating Rita' meets 'Gavin and Stacey' and 'Four Weddings and A Funeral,' with some dark Belfast humour thrown in for good measure.

If Ireland is given the chance for a second outing - and let's hope he does - it would be good to see him broaden the show out with more contributions from a colourful supporting cast full of comic potential. 

The ingredients are definitely there for a show that trades on jet black comedy involving hard Belfast characters with soft centres. 

Let's hope it gets that second bite.

('The Lovers' was broadcast on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland from September 7-October 12, 2023 and was made available for streaming on NowTV in the UK and Ireland and on Binge in Australia)