Someone at the BBC must not be a fan of Christmas, because Mayflies takes counter-programming to the extreme.
While this season is usually known for an excess of joy and yuletide cheer on TV, Mayflies is a thoroughly sombre affair from the off, with even the lighter moments tinged with an inevitable sadness – it’s baked into the premise.
Still, you can’t judge a programme for its scheduling, so how does the series stack up irrespective of its holiday broadcast? In truth, it’s a mixed bag.
Two-part drama Mayflies stars Martin Compston and Tony Curran as lifelong friends Jimmy and Tully. One day Tully comes to Jimmy with grave news – he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and wants Jimmy to help him travel to Switzerland to end his own life.
On top of that, he wants the plan to be kept secret from his partner Anna, who is begging him to undertake chemotherapy.
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The series is based on Andrew O’Hagan’s 2020 novel, and takes on an extra layer of poignancy with the knowledge that it was inspired by one of the author’s friends who died of cancer in 2018.
The drama has been fast-tracked in every sense of the term – the book was released just two years ago, the adaptation announced four months ago and already it is being released. It’s a timeline which is almost unheard of when it comes to productions such as this.
This, I think, tells you everything you need to know about the drawbacks of Mayflies, a series which feels as though it’s been made with the utmost passion, but limited time to fully examine and develop its complex themes and characters.
But first to the positives – the performances are, across the board, magnificent. Compston is a reassuring, compelling presence, while Ashley Jensen brings such heart to her role as Anna that she almost eclipses the two leads.
However, it’s Curran who is truly revelatory here, taking on a hugely difficult role and filling it with verve, humanity and emotional honesty. Even when Tully’s actions are difficult to comprehend or could even be seen as selfish, his quiet anguish and dignity in the face of desperation make him utterly sympathetic.
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The drama also manages to deal with some hugely tricky themes sensitively and without judgement. There is no ‘message’ here, merely the exploration of two bad options and how, in choosing either, Tully knows he will create a ripple effect for both himself and those around him.
The main issue lies in the show’s pacing and structure. Where O’Hagan’s book is broken into two parts – first Jimmy and Tully meeting as young men, and then a second section 30 years on – the drama has been interwoven here, with the future taking precedent and the past occasionally rearing its head in flashbacks.
It’s unsurprising why this decision was made. You don’t hire actors of the calibre of Curran, Compston and Jensen to leave them out of the first episode entirely. However, it is to the show’s detriment that we don’t get to spend as much time with the younger cast.
Rian Gordon and Tom Glynn-Carney put in fine performances as the young Jimmy and Tully, but they are sidelined, only popping up occasionally as a reminder of what Jimmy and Tully have to lose. Their inclusion doesn’t allow the viewer to fully embrace the excitement and joy in their initial friendship because the stakes were already so high in the future timeline.
This means that as much as the characters are constantly telling us how close Jimmy and Tully are, and Compston and Curran do have excellent chemistry, it’s difficult to feel completely sold on the seemingly unbreakable bonds of this lifelong friendship.
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It’s also a problem of the show’s runtime. The series is only made up of two parts, each clocking in at around an hour. While this story might have worked as a two-hour film, it has been structured as a series, meaning the ending feels as though it comes all too soon.
Perhaps this is an attempt to mirror the show’s central themes and reflect the uncaring brevity of existence, but it left me wanting for deeper exploration of these characters, a further understanding of what has driven them to now and does drive them in their current actions.
The cast and creatives behind the adaptation have spoken about how the series is “strangely life affirming” in spite of its devastating central premise, but the short runtime means the whole piece is overwhelmed by the grief of it all. Even just adding a third episode could have helped to re-balance the scales by leaning further into the joy of their initial friendship.
When it comes to the characters, Tully is better served by the series because the story is defined by his personality and his choices. Jimmy doesn’t benefit from the same development, and is thus left feeling more unknowable and indistinct.
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The whole series leaves a feeling as though you have been teased with the prospect of a profound journey, but have been forced to skip ahead to the end. When a story is as slight as this, and particularly when it’s so emotionally distressing, character is everything, and these characters needed more time to be thoroughly explored.
However, in the end it must be noted that emotionally the denouement simply works. The tragedy may not be as tied to these characters specifically as those behind the series might like, but the simple tragedy of what it is depicting is so heartbreakingly understandable, and the performances so believable, that one would have to have a heart of stone not to feel something.
It’s also important to understand that the central topics of terminal illness and euthanasia are so weighty and sensitive that the piece is likely to impact people in wholly different ways depending on their own personal experiences.
For some viewers the profundity of Tully’s situation may well override any quibbles about structure and pace, and that sort of reaction shouldn’t be downplayed.
But in the end, I imagine it’s the emotional climax that will stay with most viewers far longer than the series does as a whole, which in its light touch and its brevity may soon be forgotten.
Mayflies is available on BBC iPlayer from 27th December 2022 and airs on BBC One at 9pm on 28th and 29th December. For more news, interviews and features, visit our Drama hub, or find something to watch now with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.
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