Exactly zero of the jokes land in Joan Carr-Wiggin’s comedy-drama about a woman who finds out she has five days to live. Grace (Anna Chancellor) vows to finally read Middlemarch (out loud, no less) and enjoy her last few days with her teenage daughters and sweet, bumbling husband (The Vicar of Dibley’s James Fleet). Chaos ensues when her Pulitzer-prize winning ex-husband (John Hannah, doing his best Peter Capaldi impression) shows up to “win Grace back”. Yes, the exposition is that blunt.
Unfortunately, even Chancellor, so brilliant and sharp as Lix Storm in BBC2’s newsroom drama The Hour, can’t save this undignified affair, gritting her teeth through writer-director Carr-Wiggin’s cringeworthy script.
