When I'm Sixty-Four

Two of my favorite actors from New Tricks. Surprising twists, gutsy and fun. I find that increasingly, I orefer British TV to American. More real, less violent, less woke/value signaling/political.

This is quite simply the best single drama the BBC have delivered in years. Just when you thought they were dumbing-down and wasting the licence fee on makeover shows, they hit you with this beautifully observed and painstakingly constructed story of love in later life which gives clichés a wide berth and delivers honest and believable characters coping with the kind of situation that, frankly, just does not get enough exposure in the media.

Downtrodden Jim, reaching the end of his usefulness in the teaching profession, wants to experience 'life' before he dies. Unfortunately he's saddled with looking after his elderly father and it begins to look as if he's going to be exchanging one form of stultifying prison existence for another. Then into his life comes Ray, taxi driver and ex-football hooligan, who is serving his own life sentence, enslaved by a family who neither appreciate him nor have any sympathy with his ongoing grief for his dead wife.

The two men are opposites in almost every respect, but as they each begin to resolve their personal dilemmas and come to terms with homosexual longings they have suppressed for decades the viewer is on the edge of his or her seat willing them to succeed. By the time they reach the bedroom their tender clumsiness together has been so well established that no graphic details are necessary; we know they'll muddle through somehow.

Alun Armstrong is an actor of great depth and integrity and any project bearing his name is always going to be worth watching, but he's a revelation here; his sensitive and understated performance never once strays in the direction of camp parody. Paul Freeman, on the other hand, was a real surprise; not being familiar with his other work I had no idea what to expect but he made Ray a whole person, a man who at last found himself open to the adventure of falling in love. Nor was there a single member of the supporting cast who hit a wrong note anywhere, and the direction and production design were disciplined and - for want of a better word - sane. The whole tone of the play was matter-of-fact and sympathetic; "Hey, guess what, men *do* sometimes fall in love with each other." It may not always be tidy or convenient, but then nor is any *other* aspect of life.

Thank you, cast, crew, writer, commissioning editor and everyone else who had the foresight to be involved in this - but most of all, Mr Armstrong and Mr Freeman, thank you for making me believe.

Actually quite annoyed with this film. Underscripted, unlikely and difficult to suspend credulity. A terribly dull man, for some reason attracts the friendship and attention of another man for no discernible reason. The film plods on predictably with zero chemistry between them. The interpersonal relations between them and the potential for family tensions is given two dimensional treatment. Painfully amateurish.

Ageing footie thug and Cockney cabbie Ray (Paul Freeman), a widower with grasping kids, meets refined retired teacher Jim (Alun Armstrong) and strikes up an unusual friendship which forces him to reassess his priorities, his feelings and his prejudices.

The BBC drama took what is still a thorny subject and treated it with class and sensitivity, helped enormously by the playing of Armstrong in particular. As Ray's kids, Jason Flemyng and Tamsin Outhwaite have little to do but do it well. As the terminally-ill friend and fellow ex-thug Billy, Karl Johnson is also very good.

A well-written, well-directed piece of drama which only lets itself down by the enforced contrast between the backgrounds of the two lead characters, and with the (almost) cop-out ending.

Nice film about love, affection, sexuality, need for company, in people who, due to different circumstances, reach retirement age alone. For many people it is a taboo, inconvenient topic, sometimes close to weakness and shame (for example, the older person being "economically exploited" by a younger one). The generations that are now reaching that point are experiencing a paradigm shift. They were born into a world, with very rigid rules. Those rules were broken, they fell, they were knocked down. Some of them were part of that change, others just saw it, locked in a closet, sometimes with family and children, and others alone, often with no stories to tell ... And there they are, with the cultural clock (and sometimes the biological one) that tells them that death is near ... It is now or never. Fortunately.