The opening minutes of Marriage (BBC One) could be accused of pulling a fast one. Sean Bean and Nicola Walker, two surefire indicators of good-quality British TV, are married couple Ian and Emma. We meet them as they wait at the airport for their flight home, after a holiday in Spain. The first real line of dialogue is “I had to pay for the ketchup”, and they bicker over whether Emma should have asked the man at the cafe if he would make a jacket potato for Ian, despite it looking as if they only sold chips.
Opening with a low-stakes row about potatoes, and the fact that Marriage comes from the pen of Stefan Golaszewski, creator of Him & Her and Mum, suggests that this will be about finding wry humour in the mundane reality of a long-term relationship. Emma and Ian talk about dodgy tummies and who will pick up the parcel that has been left with a nextdoor neighbour. They watch TV and tease each other about the state of their pants. There’s nothing wrong with the mundane, as Golaszewski’s previous shows have proved again and again. Plenty of people tune in to watch Gogglebox every week, and that’s just us watching people watching telly. Done well, it can be a voyeuristic treat.
