The visceral, vicious and vile way in which the couple hated each other in BBC2’s Together was instantly compelling.
“I hate your face,” said ‘He’, played by James McAvoy.
“I actually think of him as a cancer, one of the really bad ones like liver or pancreatic,” explained ‘She’, played by Sharon Horgan.
As if McAvoy and Horgan aren’t reason enough to watch something, Thursday’s 90-minute drama was a searingly painful, poignant and funny expose of a couple who loathe each other but are staring down the barrel of lockdown.
We all know it’s tough enough being stuck inside four walls, but with someone you can’t bear? Well, it’s like a pressure cooker – and these two gave it everything they’ve got, with sizzling chemistry.
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“The only thing keeping us together is our child,” said ‘He’, referring to Arthur, their 10-year-old who mostly sits ignored on the stairs listening to his parents fight.
The drama is staged like a two-hander play, set entirely in the couple’s kitchen to add to the feeling of claustrophobia.
They talk directly to the audience, as if being interviewed. We’re peeking at those arguments that happen behind closed doors – the embarrassing ones where we say spiteful things we don’t mean.
It starts on March 24, 2020 – the first full day of lockdown.
Every so often, time skips forward through the pandemic and we’re given a death toll update and later, a vaccination count. It’s effectively shocking.
We’re stuck in a kitchen, but we know exactly what’s happening in the outside world and occasionally hear wailing sirens and see a flicker of fear in their eyes.
Conversations are relatable – confusion over masks and isolation, jokes about Arthur being “in and out of school like a yo-yo”, an argument over aubergines in an empty-shelved Tesco, emotions running unnaturally high.
Then ‘Her’ mother, who was moved into a “lovely, lovely care home”, contracts Covid and suddenly the pandemic becomes personal.
Her mother dies alone while ‘She’ watches on FaceTime from a layby. A coffin must be chosen online, no one can send flowers, there are no hymns.
One intense scene, delivered passionately by Horgan, is basically a soapbox monologue on the failings of government. “She was killed by stupidity,” says ‘She’.
The experience bonds the couple – despite his lockdown ponytail (the less said) – and suddenly they are being nicer to each other and to Arthur. They’ve worked backwards from breakdown.
It ended with kids jumping on trampolines (the No.1 pandemic parent buy) and a lingering sense of hope – and for me, a standing ovation from my sofa.
