Truelove

Truelove starts with a question that nobody wants to answer - could you and should you kill a friend if they asked you to? But it doesn't linger. The story moves forwards at a pace that keeps the weight of its moral quandary off of the shoulders of the viewer. It's comical, nostalgic, heartwarming and fun despite its subject matter.

The story, told through a stellar cast, is well balanced and constantly developing through each episode. It resists the temptation to be carried too far into any specific genre whilst giving the audience enough familiarity on which to hang their reference points. Police procedural, thriller, drama, it has hints of each without compromising on its highly original concept. The show strikes a pleasing balance between entertainment and stimulation whilst opening up discussion with viewers both young and old(er).

This UK Channel 4 series starts well but tails off somewhat as it progresses. Certainly a difficult, painful and controversial subject is handled competently without bias and at times with some delicacy. The fact that a retired senior copper is a main player in the deployment is of some interest, given the nature of the law on this subject. The cast was well chosen and mostly very convincing in their portrayal of a group of old friends facing stark choices in their declining years and how to deal with them. I have one reservation - the later stages of this drama tended to stretch credibility, and the ending is - well, frankly - a little disappointing.

The big 'but' is what did all those brilliant actors make of their raw material, the script and the screenplay?

Please let me express dismay that this is still such a 'live' (difficult choice of a word) topic in the UK, with the whole Esther Rantzen story on the lips of the nation, a much-loved TV star facing a dismal death from cancer, and unable to choose to die with dignity. Please also let me say that I live elsewhere, in the State of Western Australia, where Voluntary Assisted Dying is on the law book, as it is in all of the other five states of our nation, and has been for so long that nobody even thinks about it any more.

The UK is not so enlightened, and those people who consider that their personal religious affiliations give them a right to insist on how others live their lives, and how they die, still appear to hold sway. We had that battle here about five years ago, not long after I was myself diagnosed with cancer, and this is a matter of considerable comfort to me, knowing that a slow, lingering, agonising death will not be something I will be forced to endure if that time ever comes.

There's the background setting. I wish to avoid spoilers, as such reviews which are thus blanked tend not to get read. I will simply say that those involved do not display in any way the competence we would associate with them from their former professional lives. A top-ranking police officer and an SAS officer in particular would plan things immaculately, and carry them out faultlessly. It is the fact that they don't even get close to either which spreads this out across six episodes, the last of which was all but pointless.

Perhaps they felt they had to do things this way to present a 'balanced' view of Voluntary Assisted Dying, and maybe the religious obstructionists would have otherwise been even more up-in-arms than I am sure they were.

So they did all this to generate drama, and thus lost the plot.

8/10 for the courage to at least open up this dialogue on such a vital topic, and for great acting, but ...........................

After the death of a friend, a group of close friends in their seventies make a pact with one another, true love, a merciful act of assisted dying, question is, will they get away with it?

What a year 2024 has been for drama so far, Mr Bates and The Post Office has rightly taken most of the oxygen, but this drama has also had people talking.

This is a captivating drama, I loved it. After the first two episodes, I didn't quite know what to expect, a romance, a dramedy, or a social exploration of assisted suicide, after episode five, I was left in no doubt, it's a straight up thriller, one with some fantastic twists and turns.

Full of surprises, it will have you guessing til the final act. There simply aren't enough dramas like this these days, certainly those with as much imagination.

I like that the central characters aren't particularly likeable, Phil for example is rather unpleasant, she is very manipulative, and incredibly controlling, Duncan however is marvellous.

Wonderful to see a primarily mature audience, and each of them nails it, Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters, Phil Davis, Sue Johnston and Peter Egan, all outstanding.

9/10.

A group of old friends meet up after a funeral and drunkenly promise each other to help end their lives when it becomes too insufferable to continue.

And then this inevitable question crops up when one of them is diagnosed with cancer.

It may sound depressing but it's tackled in a dark humour and down to earth way and I love how it portrays these older people as part of the sixties generation who really were the first to be so free spirited.

There are twists and turns throughout and it highlights the issue and its pitfalls as well as the sympathetic portrayal of those suffering. Bit of a twist too!

A unique well performed drama with excellent casting.

Well worth a watch.