Based on the novel by David Nicholls, this gentle series about a family embarking on one last holiday proves especially poignant with travel largely off-limits
You may not think an adaptation of the 2014 David Nicholls novel about a fading marriage would offer much in the way of escapism, but everything about Us (BBC One) is so Before All of This that, at times, it is hard to resist its blatant cosiness. In the middle of the night, Connie (Saskia Reeves) wakes up her husband, Douglas, (Tom Hollander, never more at home than when playing a man on the edge) and tells him she is thinking about leaving him. Douglas, a man who wears routine like a coat of armour, is shocked and then quietly devastated. Their mopey teenage son Albie is about to leave home. “I want … change,” Connie says, not unreasonably.
It’s all very polite and friendly. They still like each other, but Connie is bored. It’s not so much Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as a tussle over the Boden catalogue. In fact, the main conflict arises from the fact that the family has a “grand tour” of Europe booked – “three weeks, six countries, 12 cities. We’re like, I don’t know, U2,” says Douglas, never not ruining the fun through his extreme enthusiasm – and their insurance doesn’t cover marital strife. So they go on holiday together anyway, as one last hurrah, to see what more they can all learn about each other and themselves.
