MIX TAPE
For the pre-Spotify generations, the mix tape is an iconic symbol of the analogue age.
A cassette lovingly compiled by music fans, it was a token of affection given to lovers or friends.
It was also a chance to share the music you loved and hopefully win over the recipient to an artist or album they had never really listened to before.
A compilation of songs recorded from vinyl records, CDs or audio cassettes, it inspired the Yorkshire writer Jane Sanderson's 2020 novel 'Mix Tape'.
That novel has been brought to the small screen by Screen Australia, Screen Ireland and the Australian streaming service, Binge.
Directed by Lucy Gaffy with a screen adaptation by Dublin author Jo Spain, the four part series is a 'Normal People' and 'One Day' style tale of thwarted love.
Set over two decades mostly in Sheffield and Sydney, Jim Sturgess plays Dan O'Toole, a rock music journalist who is married to Sara Soulie's Katja.
Still living in Sheffield, Dan is intrigued when a friend Alexis Rodney's Duncan points him to an online story about an old flame, Teresa Palmer's Alison Connor landing a movie deal to adapt her latest hit novel for the big screen.
With Alison living in Sydney, Dan surreptitiously looks her up on social media and decides to reach out.
Receiving her childhood sweetheart's friend request, Alison, who is married to Ben Lawson's Michael and is a mother to Julia Savage's teenager Stella, deliberates over whether to accept and eventually does.
The reigniting of this contact brings back a flood of difficult memories for both, as they reflect on a teenage relationship that came to an abrupt end and try to understand what happened.
It also exposes flaws in their respective marriages and raises questions about whether they ought to be together and should do something about it.
Over the course of four episodes, Gaffy and Spain give us an insight into the past and present lives of Dan and Alison, with Rory Walton Smith and Florence Hunt playing the teenage versions.
Their 1980s back story is one of giddy romance followed by heartbreaking tragedy - particularly for Alison as she navigates a difficult single parent upbringing with an alcoholic mum, Siobhan O'Kelly's Catherine who also has a dodgy taste in men as exemplified by Jonathan Harden's sleazy bully, Martin.
Alison's brother, Conor Sanchez's Peter also wrestles with being gay in the homophobic climate of a working class Sheffield neighbourhood in the late 1980s.
By way of contrast, Dan's working class upbringing is much more stable, with a pigeon fancying dad, Mark O'Halloran's Bill and a protective mum, Helen Behan's Marian.
It's impossible to ignore comparisons to 'Normal People' and 'One Day' while watching Spain's depiction of young love in full flush, teenage insecurity and regret later in life.
A savvy soundtrack that includes Nick Drake, The Cure, The Velvet Underground, New Order, The Psychedelic Furs, Richard Hawley, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Fall, Rory Gallagher, The Church and The Brian Jonestown Massacre only reaffirms this - taking it firmly into the same territory as Netflix's 14 episode version of 'One Day'.
Meanwhile the casting of Sturgess as Dan also makes the comparisons inevitable, given his role as Dexter in the 2011 movie version of 'One Day' with Anne Hathaway.
For the most part, 'Mix Tape' holds up pretty well against both yardsticks - even if it doesn't quite come up to their level.
Of the two timeframes, its tale of frustrated young love overshadows the middle aged angst of Alison and Dan in later life.
As a result, Walton-Smith and particularly Hunt end up bettering the performances of Sturgess and Palmer for much of the run.
Although it has to be said that Sturgess and Palmer are impressive in the third episode, as their characters confront a shattering secret from their past that reveals exactly why their relationship ended abruptly.
Of the supporting performances, O'Halloran, Behan, Sanchez, O'Kelly, Harden and Jacqueline McKenzie as Sheila, a neighbour of Alison's who relocated to rural New South Wales, stand out.
O'Halloran, in particular, radiates real warmth as Dan's genial father, while Behan continues to build on an impressive body of supporting roles onscreen.
Harden also really commits to the show's least likeable role.
The odds are stacked, however, against Lawson, Soulie, Savage and Rodney who are handed less nuanced roles.
Some viewers may feel the show at the final hurdle but how you feel about its conclusion very much depends on how invested you are in the ups and downs of Alison and Dan's love life.
Nonetheless, as an entry in the thwarted love genre, 'Mix Tape' is a pretty decent watch.
But it also makes the case for the genre to be given a bit of a rest unless someone can come up a really novel twist.
('Mix Tape' was broadcast on BBC2 between July 15-23 2025 and was made available for streaming on the BBC iPlayer on July 15, 2025)
HERE WE GO, SERIES 3
After two middling seasons as a flagship family sitcom on BBC1, the time has come for 'Here We Go' to really up its game.
Tom Basden's suburban sitcom focuses on the Jessops, an English modern family whose every blunder appears to be captured on camera by their teenage son, Jude Collie's Sam as part of his coursework.
Katherine Parkinson and Jim Howick are Rachel and Paul Jessop, Sam's deeply flawed mum and dad whose weird obsessions and insecurities often land them in trouble.
Sam's sister, Freya Park's Amy is living with her girlfriend, Mica Ricketts' Maya and brings her laundry home but their relationship is under strain.
In Series Three, Alison Steadman's jovial Scouse granny Sue, who is Paul's mum, has now moved into the family home.
Rachel's brother, Basden's Robin and his flashy, headstrong, heavily pregnant partner Cherry remain frequent visitors.
In addition to Sue moving in, Rachel is training in Series Three to be a counsellor while Paul, a former Olympic archer, is struggling to impress his colleagues in the police having graduated as a cadet.
Over the course of the series, we see Rachel and Paul have a pretty disastrous wedding anniversary, become obsessed about impressing potential neighbours to the point of abject humiliation, the family attend a 'Dungeons and Dragons' style cosplay festival and go to Liverpool while Cherry and Robin pursue a child modelling career for their newborn son Atlas.
Sue develops a gambling habit thanks to bingo, the family go to Malta to meet Rachel and Robin's dad and Amy pursues fame and fortune by launching a music career at Bedford's Battle of the Bands.
Each half hour episode is an exercise in utter humiliation whether it is Paul operating under the misguided belief that he has been asked to mentor a much younger policeman only to discover it is the other way around or Rachel obsessing over her ADHD son's first camping trip whilst she is dressed as an elf at the cosplay festival.
Unfortunately, though, despite the spirited efforts of the cast, 'Here We Go' once again fails to deliver the belly laughs you know it should.
In fact, it barely raises a smile.
Howick, Parkinson and Steadman are experienced comic performers who have nothing to prove.
Yet you can see them strain every muscle for raucous laughs that are simply not there.
Basden's scripts are a strange mix of dad jokes and Ricky Gervais style moments of comic embarrassment.
However this fusion doesn't work because the gags aren't edgy.
As a consequence, Basden and his fellow cast members are reduced to mugging to the camera.
The one liners in 'Here We Go' and comic scenarios are so bleached out and bland, it's actually hard to watch.
And as the cast flails about trying to generate even one laugh, their characters become more and more irritating.
All of this is a shame because in the wake of 'Gavin and Stacey' or 'Friday Night Dinner,' there's a huge gap in the market for a British sitcom with real bite about suburban family life.
'Here We Go' isn't that show.
A British 'Modern Family,' it ain't.
Sadly, this isn't a case of 'Here We Go' but rather time to go.
(Series Three of 'Here We Go' was broadcast on BBC1 July 25-August 29, 2025 and was made available for streaming on the BBC iPlayer on July 25, 2025)
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