Mike Bartlett’s latest drama, set in the same world as his smash-hit Doctor Foster, is a smart exploration of the human condition – with just the right amount of sentimentality
Life is the title – inspired by David Attenborough – of this BBC One drama series by Mike Bartlett, the award-winning playwright turned award-winning TV writer. He has used epic single-world titles before – Trauma, Press – but it is still a bold declaration. Does this six-part series truly contain all the vicissitudes and diversity of human existence? After watching three episodes, that question is still unanswered, but what is clear is that this is an entertaining week-night drama that does not revolve around a spate of brutal killings. That should be enough for most of us.
Life’s claim to all-encompassing representation is partly justified by its setting: a big Victorian house in Manchester that has been divided into four flats. This is not a drama about twentysomethings in a house-share, as in the seminal 90s show This Life. Nor is it a sprawling, single-family dwelling, as in the more recent Years and Years (although, judging by the aerial and exterior shots that open each episode, it could easily have been filmed in the same area of Stockport). Rather, the ways in which the four main residents are isolated, despite their proximity, and eventually find ways to connect across dividing walls are what provide the story’s foundations.
