“Having kids isn’t easy. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, but boy oh boy does it up the stakes,” admitted Spall.
The rocky road to parenting is explored in Apple TV+ series Trying, which is now in its third series. It tells the story of Jason (Rafe Spall) and Nikki (Esther Smith), a couple in their 30s who are desperate to become parents but are unable to conceive.
Almost exactly two years ago, I was invited by this magazine to muse on what was then a wave of “sad-coms” or “dramedies”, those shows playing not quite for laughs but more for wry, sympathetic chuckles at the vicissitudes of life. The success of Detectorists, Back to Life, Don’t Forget the Driver, Ricky Gervais’s After Life, Mum and This Country served to prove that small-screen gags would, from now on, be accompanied by gulps in the throat.
Sitcom Modern Family revolves around the lives of three diverse families living in LA, headed by matriarch Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), along with his two children Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson).
When 16-year-old Matthew Taylor is brutally murdered in a dormant area of the Lake District, suspicions arise around English teacher Sally Wright (Katherine Kelly, Cheat), who took a special interest in the boy at school.
The unique connection between the lead characters Marianne and Connell, played by Paul mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, unfolded over 12 episodes and shows two young people learning how to love.
With the BBC series now over, if you’re missing out on your dose of romance, here are some of the best TV shows to watch next.
