Aerial Telly

Mum and Dad Are Splitting Up review

BBC Two

As documentaries about things that are bit sad go Mum and Dad are Splitting Up is at least the equal of Jeff and That Bird Didn’t Work Out or The Cat Had To Be Put Down. One third of children live with one parent now so there are a lot of kids having the time of their lives playing their parents off each other justifiably hurt and angry children out there. Film maker Olly Lambert puts the errant parents on the spot and asks them “what was all that about then?” The awkward stilted conversations between children and parents that follow comprise the bulk of this film.

Meet Tasha. She was 10 when her folks separated 6 years ago. Daddy Glen was a glamorous and important pirate radio DJ when he left Tasha’s mother for another woman. Glen strikes you as a less successful Les McQueen. Tasha is still fuming with her pops who she doesn’t even regard as her father any more. Her moms can’t have that many complaints though as Glen was already in a relationship when she started seeing him. Live by the pork sword, die by it – that’s the killer’s code.

Her moms can’t have that many complaints though as Glen was already in a relationship when she started seeing him. Live by the pork sword, die by it – that’s the killer’s code.

It’s clear that domesticity never really agreed with Glans but he’s emerged from the experience a lot wiser. “I’ve learned a lot about myself.” OK,  what have you learned? “That we are all human.” Just when you think the documentary is spinning dull stories from teeds it drops the bomb on you. It’s like watching Catfish.

Natasha is next up. Her mom managed her relationship breakup with the stealth of a cat burglar, secretly moving her possessions bit by bit without her husbland knowing to a new house. When she made the final break, taking Natasha with her, she didn’t tell husbland where she and his daughter had gone. Natasha now lives with her dad and hasn’t spoken to her mother for 18 months which is a good job because she’s clearly a fucking sociopath. There’s a strange half-assed reconciliation between them at the end, all the stranger for having a film crew in the room with them.

Many people have dopey thoughtless parents who put about as much time into planning their lives (and considering the effects their actions have on others) as BBC 3 put into planning their sitcom commissions (and considering the effects their actions have on others)

What lessons can we take away from Mum and Dad are Splitting Up? One might be that many people have dopey thoughtless parents who put about as much time into planning their lives (and considering the effects their actions have on others) as BBC 3 put into planning their sitcom commissions (and considering the effects their actions have on others). I’m really glad that Tasha, Natasha and those other tubs of shit who bored me so badly I can’t even remember their faces never mind their names are having these important conversations with their ‘rents. I’d just rather they had them elsewhere.

The verdict: They really need to up their game.

Marks out of 10: 5

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