When I first heard about Am I Being Unreasonable?, I assumed it was some satire on the parenting website Mumsnet. The people on it spend an inordinate amount of their supposedly busy days discussing difficult tradespeople or the unsavoury sexual habits of their “DH” (Dear Husband). Oftentimes they seek validation for their actions from their fellow members, by asking “…am I being unreasonable?” Or “AIBU” in the Mumsnet argot.
The latest comedy vehicle from This Country’s creator and star Daisy May Cooper isn’t about Mumsnet as such, except that the character she plays, Nic, inhabits a quintessentially middle-class English environment (Cooper’s native Cotswolds by the looks of things), and she seems prone to asking the most intimate questions about herself on Mumsnet (eg, “Does anyone else’s husband give them the ick so much their fanny dries up?”). She has a nice house, a clever little son who’s more mature than she is, and an eccentric cleaning lady. She struggles to make friends in the village, and she is married to a bloke, Dan (Dustin Demri-Burns) who she doesn’t fancy that much, and their love life is sustained by cheesy fantasies. We also learn that there was another man in her life, Alex (David Fynn), who she did passionately love, but who came to a violent end in a freak accident involving his duffle coat and some train doors. The opening scene has Dan being splatted by a passing train, all in front of Nic’s eyes. Poor Nic has terrible flashbacks about the incident, which leaves her screaming in country churchyards. Then Nic bonds with a new arrival in the neighbourhood, the single mum Jen (Selin Hizli). Their kids play together, and the pair discover a shared dislike about everyone else in the village. Drinks are arranged.
