The day has come! The long anticipated second season of Last Tango in Halifax begins tonight in the UK. Huzzah! BBC1 recently released this trailer to give us just a taste of what’s to come over the next six episodes.
Last season left us with a cliffhanger as Derek Jacobi’s character Alan lay in a hospital bed after a heart attack, but clearly he’s survived and all is relatively well. Thank goodness, because otherwise that would have made for a bummer of a second season. But no, it appears the oldies are very much alive and still very much in love.
And while we only get to see a snippet of Caroline with Kate in this trailer, that snippet does include Kate mentioning she wants a baby. To which Caroline bursts into laughter, a sound that is oh so lovely and that I have missed. This storyline should begin in the second episode, and I am intrigued for sure.
Drama is also set to take off from the start, as Gillian confesses to Caroline that she slept with John. The Radio Times released a four-minute clip from the first episode, which includes the ladies’ ride back to Gillian’s farm from the hospital after this admission, with much amusing awkwardness between Gillian and Caroline.
Inside Media Track also has some beautiful screen shots from tonight’s episode, if you just can’t wait. This season also promises more development of both Caroline and Gillian’s sons, as Caroline’s boys further process her relationship with Kate, and Raff has quite the surprise for everyone.
Sarah Lancashire and Anne Reid have both done interviews in the last week in which they are predictably tight lipped about spoilers for the upcoming season, but are obviously enormously proud of the work they’ve done. Anne told The Independent that she’s “just the luckiest person in the world to have all these wonderful parts at an age where one might not be working.” She also refers to the interviewer in this interview as “dear” and “darling,” which leads me to believe that she is just as adorable in real life as her character is. (Although probably less bigoted-a storyline that I am very interested to see advance.)
And while both actresses mentioned the grueling filming schedule, Lancashire told the Western Daily Press, “The schedule’s demanding but it’s not a hardship, because it’s so stimulating, and as an actor you wait an entire career to be involved in a project like this.” She attributes the quality of the show to showrunner Sally Wainwright, and also mentions how much the cast cares about each other.
The wonderful interview with Lancashire also reveals many interesting things about her relationship with Kate. For instance, the fact that Lancashire didn’t even know her character Caroline was gay until halfway through shooting the first season, as they don’t film chronologically. “The director phoned me and said, ‘I think you ought to know this.'” After a laugh, Lancashire continued to explain that it didn’t change how she approached her character: “I approach it as a human being, that’s all…because it’s about human emotion. Love is love. It doesn’t matter about sexuality, but about how you feel towards somebody else, and being kind and good and honest with them.”
She does reveal some things about her relationship with Kate in Season 2, mainly about how Caroline struggles personally with finding the courage to be “out and proud.” She says, “It’s interesting. You think Caroline has the upper hand in most things, because she has that arrogance but, interestingly, a lot of guidance comes from Kate.” I love this. It describes so well the dynamics of all the characters on this show in the way that they constantly surprise you. I want Caroline to be out and proud, obviously, and I can even see her doing it. But at the same time that she’s brash and confident, she’s also scared and vulnerable. Even if she’s still timid about showing their relationship to the world, I’m just glad that it seems like her and Kate’s relationship is still going strong.
I haven’t been able to find any information about when Season 2 might begin airing in the US. But Scott and Bailey, another BBC show that found its way to PBS a little before Last Tango in Halifax did the same, aired their most recent season on PBS without too much of a delay, and I’m hoping the same will happen for Last Tango.
Lancashire says that while there’s always nervous anticipation about a second series, “I don’t think people will be disappointed. It’s absolutely terrific stuff.”
I can’t wait. I’ll see you tomorrow with a recap!
