Continuing the recent surge of strong, female-led series, this six-parter highlights the distressing side of long-term singledom, via sharp, fourth wall-shattering observations
It’s always a risky thing to say, so let me preface it with the assurance that I mean it not as faint praise, but as encouragement born out of a wish to enhance your lives in some small but significant way. OK? Right – ’tis this. Stick with Out of Her Mind (BBC Two), even if you find your own divided over the issue. The new six-part series by the standup comedian Sara Pascoe is a grower. Its slightly shaky start evolves into something delicately intricate, clever and – by the end – moving.
Pascoe plays Sara Pascoe (not even, really, “Sara Pascoe”, we are given to understand), a slightly awkward, nicety-free zone who is negotiating long-term singledom, her family, and the encroaching sense that life is something that happens to other people. A large part of her arrested development seems to stem from being dumped by her fiance 10 weeks after they got engaged, 15 years ago.