अपनी भाषा में प्लॉट जोड़ेंA middle-aged married man has an obsessive affair with a younger, married woman.A middle-aged married man has an obsessive affair with a younger, married woman.A middle-aged married man has an obsessive affair with a younger, married woman.
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Very few TV dramas really ever convey the mess of real peoples' love lives but this certainly tries very hard and was worth watching.
I have to admit I originally only watched it because it was filmed in the "new town" of Telford, England - a bizarre mix of the old industrial towns that were the origins of our modern world and a newly built centre of advanced corporate blandness.
People who claim the story is ridiculous clearly don't read tabloid newspapers enough - our culture is full of older men having unplanned affairs with younger women. This is one of those stories and details the destruction that it causes.
I have to admit I originally only watched it because it was filmed in the "new town" of Telford, England - a bizarre mix of the old industrial towns that were the origins of our modern world and a newly built centre of advanced corporate blandness.
People who claim the story is ridiculous clearly don't read tabloid newspapers enough - our culture is full of older men having unplanned affairs with younger women. This is one of those stories and details the destruction that it causes.
Tony Marchant's 1989 drama was as much a critique of Thatcherism as he saw it as it was about an age gap love affair, but much as it was when it was first broadcast to audiences in 1989 as when I watched it recently the passionate escapades of Keith Barron and Maggie O'Neill's characters easily dominate any worthier endeavours intended by the writer. Indeed Marchant's efforts to create a soulless corporate landscape early on has the unfortunate effect of rendering the drama and characters somewhat lifeless early on.
The story begins with newly employed taxi driver Tom (Keith Barron) dropping off a smooching old businessman and a young girl (Secretary? Mistress? Call Girl?) on one dark rainy night when, out of the blue a young woman, Kathy (Maggie O'Neill) comes running up to his taxi distraught and getting into his cab asks him to "take me home." Unfortunately Tom doesn't know the area as he's new to the job and it's Kathy who advises him to call his boss to give him directions. It turns out that Kathy lives on a new housing development, one of many that was being built by the Government in a redevelopment drive to revitalize (or decimate the character of) old industrial towns. Kathy is one of those yuppies that were about in the 1980's, married to Martin (Reece Dinsdale), a young executive at a company that Tom's wife does catering for and it's clear from when we first meet Martin that all is not well in the marriage. Indeed early on Kathy discovers she is pregnant, but Martin - far from delighted - is horrified that this could affect their working arrangement and his plans to move to a bigger house. Martin is a typical (some could say stereotypical) yuppie of the old school, obnoxious and ambitious and always looking to rise higher in the social standing. A baby threatens those well laid plans and he forces her to have an abortion.
Over the course of the first episode Kathy continues to encounter Tom the taxi driver (unintentionally), due to the fact that Kathy doesn't know how to drive and needs to travel to work (do they not have buses there?). Tom for his part is not particularly pleased to keep bumping into her. Indeed, for much of the drama Tom is a bit of a misery. He is disillusioned by his life and new job, having been made redundant from his beloved job as a blade maker for a lawn mower factory (I'm not making this up) when new management decided that workers needed computer skills to stay on in the job. Naturally this excluded all those utterly baffled by new technology for what was once a simple manual job (no change there, then), and Tom found himself unemployed. He only has the taxi job on the recommendation of his pal Ray (Tim Preece), who also works there, but Tom shows no enthusiasm for the job. Indeed for a cab driver he is utterly surly at times, with none of the chatter and cheer you'd expect from a cabbie, and he's not very enthusiastic when one day Kathy tries to unburden her sorrows onto him after having just come from the abortion clinic, devastated at having aborted her child. Indeed it makes you wonder at this point how on earth this unlikely duo end up having an affair with each other. But before you know it they are suddenly chuckling in the park and soon Tom is offering to give her driving lessons. Before the end of Episode 1 he is giving her a lot more than tuition!
There's a lot in this that seems unrealistic and not because of a young woman having an affair with a middle aged taxi driver. Age gap affairs are often in the newspapers, though in modern sensibilities it would probably be frowned upon nowadays. No, what's hard to believe is the suddenness of previously antagonistic characters not only falling into a sex charged love affair, but even that they start to get on with each other. Tom's character is so morose and unsympathetic to Kathy at first that it's hard to see how she could fall for him so quickly. Indeed, part of this drama's problem is that there are so many miserable characters in it, with the sole exception being Tom's wife Liz (played by Annette Crosbie). Early on in one scene Tom drives his wife and daughter through the rapidly changing area that he once knew as home and all the new developments going on. It's obvious that Tom is struggling to find a place for himself in this changing world or feel of any useful purpose and both he and his daughter bemoan the soulless new buildings and disappearance of old industries. However Liz is full of optimism and excited by the new changes intended to revitalize the town. It's ironic in a drama critical of Thatcherism that in this scene Tom and his daughter come across as misery gutses, while it's Liz's enthusiasm that is more appealing, and seems to of been for audiences in 1989 - missing the whole point of the drama's intended message.
Another thing that seems utterly inexplicable is Tom's disenchantment of his marriage to Liz. Loving, supportive and cheerful, she is what many middle aged men would hope to have in a wife when they have been married for 25 years. Yet even before he meets Kathy he is depressed by the monotony of his marriage and his life, so maybe Kathy is a way of keeping hold of his youth, as a statement that youth has not passed him by yet? Certainly he and Kathy indulge in sexual escapades, but even then Tom is sweetly self conscious about his body during their first time with her, asking her to turn the light out "due to his spare tyre." Surprisingly for a drama billed as sexually charged, there are remarkably few sex scenes, and the focus is more on Tom's growing inadequacies. In one scene Kathy takes him out to a fancy restaurant, unintentionally highlighting her wealth over his humble working class circumstances. Then there is the age difference and as Tom becomes more obsessed about his young lover he begins to become ever reckless, culminating in a (unintentionally funny) moment where he stares through her window while she and her husband Martin are entertaining work colleagues of his. He is so blatant he might as well glued himself to the window like one of those stick on Garfield toys, but his actions prove the act of folly, as it ultimately leads to the exposure of their affair.
It's the final episode where it really comes to life, as revelations and recriminations come to the fore. No one can fault the performances of Keith Barron and Maggie O'Neill as the unlikely lovers, but for me the standout performance is Annette Crosbie, who is heart breaking in the role of the wronged and bewildered wife. She is an utter joy as Liz, outwardly cheerful for her increasingly distant husband, and concerned and supportive when his behaviour changes towards her when it would of been far easier to understand Tom's affair had she been accusing and combative. The scene where he confesses to his affair to her is beautifully played, with all the hurt and betrayal etched in Crosbie's expression and her voice. It's not just that he slept with another woman that kills her - she can deal with a one night stand - it's the fact he is still in a affair with her that devastates her. And it is her character that makes the dilemma facing Tom all the harder. What will he do now? Will he stay in a marriage that he has found lifeless and unfulfilling and try to repair the damage he has done? Or will he follow his heart and passion and attempt a new life with his young lover Kathy, where he seems to of gained a new purpose?
For Kathy her dilemma is altogether different. It's hard to imagine her torn by the potential end of her marriage to Martin, but credit to Maggie O'Neill she does well to display all the guilt and distraught that the revelations have caused and she does well in what was a first big role for her. But Reece Dinsdale is lumbered with a truly obnoxious character in Martin, who you cannot possibly feel sorry for and who makes in one sense Kathy's decision a bit more easier. But is it? Her affair exposed, she cannot really go back to a husband who forced her to have an abortion. But that also means abandoning her home and lifestyle and she seemingly has no one in the town she can turn to but Tom, who at least cares for her as a person. Tom at least has a wife and family, but Kathy has no one. So what will she do?
It's that human dilemma that makes Take Me Home an intriguing drama in the end, because you wonder just how it will end. No solution is perfect but whatever is decided will have devastating consequences for someone. For that the three main leads do it justice with some superb acting. But writer Tom Marchant's efforts to reflect what he saw as the effects of Thatcherism on his main characters, disenchanted with their lives and soulless landscape, inadvertently also leaves the drama somewhat lifeless at times and characters hard to engage with. Only once Tom and Kathy's affair is in full swing and the true cost of their actions becomes realized does it become more involved and the drama it should of been. It doesn't always convince and it takes a time to really catch fire, but if anybody captures the heart of this this most human of stories it is Annette Crosbie. She is superb.
The story begins with newly employed taxi driver Tom (Keith Barron) dropping off a smooching old businessman and a young girl (Secretary? Mistress? Call Girl?) on one dark rainy night when, out of the blue a young woman, Kathy (Maggie O'Neill) comes running up to his taxi distraught and getting into his cab asks him to "take me home." Unfortunately Tom doesn't know the area as he's new to the job and it's Kathy who advises him to call his boss to give him directions. It turns out that Kathy lives on a new housing development, one of many that was being built by the Government in a redevelopment drive to revitalize (or decimate the character of) old industrial towns. Kathy is one of those yuppies that were about in the 1980's, married to Martin (Reece Dinsdale), a young executive at a company that Tom's wife does catering for and it's clear from when we first meet Martin that all is not well in the marriage. Indeed early on Kathy discovers she is pregnant, but Martin - far from delighted - is horrified that this could affect their working arrangement and his plans to move to a bigger house. Martin is a typical (some could say stereotypical) yuppie of the old school, obnoxious and ambitious and always looking to rise higher in the social standing. A baby threatens those well laid plans and he forces her to have an abortion.
Over the course of the first episode Kathy continues to encounter Tom the taxi driver (unintentionally), due to the fact that Kathy doesn't know how to drive and needs to travel to work (do they not have buses there?). Tom for his part is not particularly pleased to keep bumping into her. Indeed, for much of the drama Tom is a bit of a misery. He is disillusioned by his life and new job, having been made redundant from his beloved job as a blade maker for a lawn mower factory (I'm not making this up) when new management decided that workers needed computer skills to stay on in the job. Naturally this excluded all those utterly baffled by new technology for what was once a simple manual job (no change there, then), and Tom found himself unemployed. He only has the taxi job on the recommendation of his pal Ray (Tim Preece), who also works there, but Tom shows no enthusiasm for the job. Indeed for a cab driver he is utterly surly at times, with none of the chatter and cheer you'd expect from a cabbie, and he's not very enthusiastic when one day Kathy tries to unburden her sorrows onto him after having just come from the abortion clinic, devastated at having aborted her child. Indeed it makes you wonder at this point how on earth this unlikely duo end up having an affair with each other. But before you know it they are suddenly chuckling in the park and soon Tom is offering to give her driving lessons. Before the end of Episode 1 he is giving her a lot more than tuition!
There's a lot in this that seems unrealistic and not because of a young woman having an affair with a middle aged taxi driver. Age gap affairs are often in the newspapers, though in modern sensibilities it would probably be frowned upon nowadays. No, what's hard to believe is the suddenness of previously antagonistic characters not only falling into a sex charged love affair, but even that they start to get on with each other. Tom's character is so morose and unsympathetic to Kathy at first that it's hard to see how she could fall for him so quickly. Indeed, part of this drama's problem is that there are so many miserable characters in it, with the sole exception being Tom's wife Liz (played by Annette Crosbie). Early on in one scene Tom drives his wife and daughter through the rapidly changing area that he once knew as home and all the new developments going on. It's obvious that Tom is struggling to find a place for himself in this changing world or feel of any useful purpose and both he and his daughter bemoan the soulless new buildings and disappearance of old industries. However Liz is full of optimism and excited by the new changes intended to revitalize the town. It's ironic in a drama critical of Thatcherism that in this scene Tom and his daughter come across as misery gutses, while it's Liz's enthusiasm that is more appealing, and seems to of been for audiences in 1989 - missing the whole point of the drama's intended message.
Another thing that seems utterly inexplicable is Tom's disenchantment of his marriage to Liz. Loving, supportive and cheerful, she is what many middle aged men would hope to have in a wife when they have been married for 25 years. Yet even before he meets Kathy he is depressed by the monotony of his marriage and his life, so maybe Kathy is a way of keeping hold of his youth, as a statement that youth has not passed him by yet? Certainly he and Kathy indulge in sexual escapades, but even then Tom is sweetly self conscious about his body during their first time with her, asking her to turn the light out "due to his spare tyre." Surprisingly for a drama billed as sexually charged, there are remarkably few sex scenes, and the focus is more on Tom's growing inadequacies. In one scene Kathy takes him out to a fancy restaurant, unintentionally highlighting her wealth over his humble working class circumstances. Then there is the age difference and as Tom becomes more obsessed about his young lover he begins to become ever reckless, culminating in a (unintentionally funny) moment where he stares through her window while she and her husband Martin are entertaining work colleagues of his. He is so blatant he might as well glued himself to the window like one of those stick on Garfield toys, but his actions prove the act of folly, as it ultimately leads to the exposure of their affair.
It's the final episode where it really comes to life, as revelations and recriminations come to the fore. No one can fault the performances of Keith Barron and Maggie O'Neill as the unlikely lovers, but for me the standout performance is Annette Crosbie, who is heart breaking in the role of the wronged and bewildered wife. She is an utter joy as Liz, outwardly cheerful for her increasingly distant husband, and concerned and supportive when his behaviour changes towards her when it would of been far easier to understand Tom's affair had she been accusing and combative. The scene where he confesses to his affair to her is beautifully played, with all the hurt and betrayal etched in Crosbie's expression and her voice. It's not just that he slept with another woman that kills her - she can deal with a one night stand - it's the fact he is still in a affair with her that devastates her. And it is her character that makes the dilemma facing Tom all the harder. What will he do now? Will he stay in a marriage that he has found lifeless and unfulfilling and try to repair the damage he has done? Or will he follow his heart and passion and attempt a new life with his young lover Kathy, where he seems to of gained a new purpose?
For Kathy her dilemma is altogether different. It's hard to imagine her torn by the potential end of her marriage to Martin, but credit to Maggie O'Neill she does well to display all the guilt and distraught that the revelations have caused and she does well in what was a first big role for her. But Reece Dinsdale is lumbered with a truly obnoxious character in Martin, who you cannot possibly feel sorry for and who makes in one sense Kathy's decision a bit more easier. But is it? Her affair exposed, she cannot really go back to a husband who forced her to have an abortion. But that also means abandoning her home and lifestyle and she seemingly has no one in the town she can turn to but Tom, who at least cares for her as a person. Tom at least has a wife and family, but Kathy has no one. So what will she do?
It's that human dilemma that makes Take Me Home an intriguing drama in the end, because you wonder just how it will end. No solution is perfect but whatever is decided will have devastating consequences for someone. For that the three main leads do it justice with some superb acting. But writer Tom Marchant's efforts to reflect what he saw as the effects of Thatcherism on his main characters, disenchanted with their lives and soulless landscape, inadvertently also leaves the drama somewhat lifeless at times and characters hard to engage with. Only once Tom and Kathy's affair is in full swing and the true cost of their actions becomes realized does it become more involved and the drama it should of been. It doesn't always convince and it takes a time to really catch fire, but if anybody captures the heart of this this most human of stories it is Annette Crosbie. She is superb.
Take Me Home is a poignant three-part BBC drama that quietly unpacks emotional dissatisfaction and personal disconnection against the backdrop of a changing 1980s Britain. Keith Barron plays Tom, a redundant factory worker turned taxi driver, while Maggie O'Neill-in her breakthrough role-shines as Kathy, a woman neglected by her ambitious husband Martin, a software programmer for a Japanese tech firm.
When Tom and Kathy begin an affair, it's not out of passion but shared loneliness, and the drama unfolds with a restrained, humane touch. Set in a Midlands town embracing Thatcherism and modern industry, the series contrasts old and new Britain, exploring how people are often left behind in the name of progress.
Barron and O'Neill deliver deeply sympathetic performances, and the series avoids melodrama, showing the emotional fallout of their affair with quiet devastation. Take Me Home is a subtle, affecting story about connection, regret, and the cost of change.
When Tom and Kathy begin an affair, it's not out of passion but shared loneliness, and the drama unfolds with a restrained, humane touch. Set in a Midlands town embracing Thatcherism and modern industry, the series contrasts old and new Britain, exploring how people are often left behind in the name of progress.
Barron and O'Neill deliver deeply sympathetic performances, and the series avoids melodrama, showing the emotional fallout of their affair with quiet devastation. Take Me Home is a subtle, affecting story about connection, regret, and the cost of change.
Maggie O'Neill, who plays Kathy, is just wonderful in this. Her performance is pitch perfect.
Watching this again in 2025, having first seen it when it was broadcast in 1989, what struck me most about it is that it feels much more like Kathy's story than it does Tom. Less of "a middle-aged married man having an obsessive affair with a younger, married woman" and more "a dissatisfied young, married woman, trying to take back control of her life."
I did struggle with Tom's decision making as this drew to a conclusion. But the very ending is not disappointing and plays in to my feeling that really, this has been Kathy's story all along.
Watching this again in 2025, having first seen it when it was broadcast in 1989, what struck me most about it is that it feels much more like Kathy's story than it does Tom. Less of "a middle-aged married man having an obsessive affair with a younger, married woman" and more "a dissatisfied young, married woman, trying to take back control of her life."
I did struggle with Tom's decision making as this drew to a conclusion. But the very ending is not disappointing and plays in to my feeling that really, this has been Kathy's story all along.
क्या आपको पता है
- कनेक्शनFeatured in Remembers...: Tony Marchant Remembers... Take Me Home (2025)
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