Plenty More Lesbians In The Loch

The main problem I have with Lip Service is that it's British. So there are only six episodes in a series - and five of them have been on. Luckily, the box set comes out on Monday (before the last episode airs, eep!) and I think I will pre-order it as I don't want to wait until Christmas to start sharing this with people. It's good. It's really good. I love so much about it; it's British, which is great as there is nowhere near enough good British TV; there aren't enough dramas on - and I don't mean Midsomer Murders - I mean the good stuff. We had This Life but that was ages ago. That was on when I was too young to be watching it (I always had to go to bed, it was years and years later I finally got into it - watching/taping it every night and watching it all in a month). Then there was Queer As Folk which I mention not because of the gay connection but because it was a brilliant, brilliant show. About ordinary people.

I'm trying to think of good recent British dramas and struggling. There is Doctor Who, of course, oh and Sherlock (but with only three part is hardly a 'series' - though I think the next one will be longer!) Jekyll was great a few years ago. (What would we watch without Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat?) Other than that there is only Torchwood (which had its good and bad points but ultimately triumphed with "Children of the Earth") and Skins (which rarely lived up to its potential but was absolutely amazing and incredible when it did, honestly!) which is a teen show. And I love teen shows but I'm very far from teenaged now.

Lip Service then is the show for us - our generation. (The characters are in their late twenties/early thirties.) And it's not set in London! (I love London but it's so removed from the rest of the UK. It is entirely its own place.) It's set in Glasgow - a busy city that I'm fond of (but not one that I love), a rough, rainy place with a beauty you have to look for.

Laura Fraser plays Cat, a sensible architect. I've loved LF since I was about fifteen and saw Virtual Sexuality - a wonderful film about losing your virginity. Cat's great - she's probably the character I can relate to the most. She's always being stressed and really organised, she's still really upset and messed up from Frankie leaving her years ago. And LF seems especially tiny in this - very cute and Scottish.

Then there is Frankie, she's the one in all the trails and publicity for the show - she's the dark, dangerous one you're supposed to like. And she's great but I much prefer Cat and Tess. Maybe that just means I'm growing up.

Tess is amazing! (She's played by Fiona Button who apparently graduated the same year I did.) She's an out of work actress who's been recently dumped. She's incredibly pretty and funny. And then there's Ed, Cat's little brother, a writer who is Tess's best friend and is in love with her. This is without doubt the best storyline in the whole show - so tender and heartbreaking. Unrequited love portrayed brilliantly. And Ed is so sweet and lovely.

The Cat/Frankie storyline is brilliant too - estranged exes with a lot of history to work through. Frankie has all of this other stuff going on too - her dead aunt, mysteries about where she came from. There's loads going on. I haven't even mentioned Jay - probably because he's not as interesting as everyone else. He's an architect and works with Cat and is friends with everyone especially Frankie.

And if that's not enough Miles Jupp even appears in an episode! Amazing.