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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

The Split Up review – this soapy divorce drama is loads of lavish, nonsensical fun

Aria, Kav and Dhruv walk together through an ornately decorated hallway in a scene from The Split Up.
‘Nicely drawn tensions’ … The Split Up. Photograph: BBC/Sister Pictures

I do like a soap that doesn’t hang about. That works itself up to a creamy lather and invites you to shut the bathroom door against real life and dive into a hot bath with it immediately for a much-needed break.

The Split Up delivers full-on sudsy fun from the start. From the team behind The Split, it’s another glossy tale of a family-run family law firm specialising in the never-too-complicated divorce cases of any high net worth individuals in their vicinity. This time, it’s written by Ursula Rani Sarma instead of Abi Morgan, the family is British South Asian and the location is Manchester not London, but beyond that it’s very much business as usual. A case of the week functions as the still eye of the ever-growing storm composed of the love lives, personal concerns and professional ambitions of the interrelated lawyers and their friends, colleagues and enemies – who are often, of course, one and the same thing. Mild glamour meets much plot; viewer happiness ensues.

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