I thought I'd pop this on when I read a news article about how marmite it is. Well, I like Marmite, and I ended up watching all 4 episodes, currently available on iPlayer. It's a portrait of a married couple - and I use that word because there are often stretches where nothing appears to be happening on screen. There isn't a dominant plotline, and it could quite easily have been called 'Scenes from a Marriage' but that title's been used already. More often than not it's the silences and the minute mannerisms of the characters that do the talking, and I found it fascinating to watch.

Here's a spoiler-free example of what delights await you. It begins with couple Nicola Walker and Sean Bean waiting at an airport at the end of a holiday, and she comes back to their table bearing food. He appears to be (almost imperceptibly) miffed about something, but doesn't come right out and say what. But he's annoyed. A few minutes later it has escalated to a slanging match on the plane. It turns out that he'd asked for a jacket potato, but there hadn't been any on the menu and she'd got him chips instead. He's angry because she hadn't asked the airport fast-food franchise assistant to make him a jacket potato. My 87-year old mum watched the first episode and said it was spot-on.

There's a lot left unsaid and some gaps are gradually filled in. There's a scene with a character yelling abuse at a couple on the street and because of background noise you can't actually hear a word he's saying. I've seen this quoted as one of the reasons incensed licence holders are allegedly turning off in disgust, but I think it was intentional (as opposed to poor sound recording) because it didn't matter what was being said - it was a character we've already met and you can guess the gist of his tirade.

I could go on, but in writing this I've convinced myself to go watch it again. Knowing the characters better from the start I expect to pick up on things a first viewing would miss. I think it's some of the best telly I've seen in ages, but if one of you comes back and says 'pile of crap Wowbagger, what were you thinking of' I'll probably just think, 'I can see what you mean...' ? 

One last thing. The news item that alerted me to the existence of this was entitled something like 'Angry viewers turned off by TV theme tune'. It's certainly not a theme tune you're likely to forget.