Love Soup

Love Soup
Genre Romantic comedy drama
Written by David Renwick
Starring Tamsin Greig
Sheridan Smith
Montserrat Lombard
Owen Brenman
Michael Landes (Series 1)
Trudie Styler (Series 1)
Mark Heap (Series 2)
Amelia Curtis (Series 2)
Opening theme "Alley Boogie" by Georgia White
Ending theme Reprise
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 2
No. of episodes 18 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) David Renwick
Jon Plowman
Producer(s) Verity Lambert
Running time 60 min. (Series 1)
30 min. (Series 2)
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 27 September 2005 – 17 May 2008
External links
Website

Love Soup is a British television comedy-drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery (a role written especially for her) and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond (Series 1 only). The series is written by David Renwick, and was produced by Verity Lambert. This was the last programme that Lambert produced before she died. The programme was initially a critical success although its audience figures were steady rather than spectacular, netting an average of five million viewers an episode. Renwick and his former scriptwriting partner Andrew Marshall have cameo appearances in one episode as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.

The second series started on 1 March 2008 and finished on 17 May 2008. This series contained changes from the first, including a switch from six 60 minute episodes, to twelve of 30 minutes (i.e. nominally the same total of six hours). Although the character of Gil was mentioned throughout the second series, and momentarily seen in the final episode (using a clip of Michael Landes from the previous series), he was not a main character.[1]

The theme tune to Love Soup is "Alley Boogie" by jazz singer Georgia White.

The first series was released on DVD in the UK on 3 December 2007. The second series (and a boxset containing both series) was released on 10 May 2008.

Situation

Alice Chenery (Tamsin Greig) and Gil Raymond (Michael Landes) are perfect for each other. They like the same things, respect the same things, and share the same beliefs. The only problem is that they are completely unaware of each other's existence.

Alice is a modern woman with old-fashioned values, who lives in Brighton, and commutes to London, where she is the manageress of a perfume company concession in a department store. She is trying to sell her flat and move, without success. Her love life is no success either. She can never find the perfect man. What is worse, her co-workers, Cleo Martin (Sheridan Smith) and Milly Russel (Montserrat Lombard), always seem to have more success with men, though their relationships never really last more than a week. Cleo and Milly try to pair her up with several men, but to no avail. She does have some family members (at least one cousin), but her parents, Arthur and Grace, are both dead.

Gil is an American comedy writer, who has moved to England to start a new project with TV producer Lloyd Drewitt (Owen Brenman). It is a series of six romantic comedies called Love Soup and he has been asked to write one of them. Things started badly for Gil when he arrived at his house (15 Carpenters Lane, Larch End), and discovered his girlfriend was seeing another man as soon as they arrived in the country. His next door neighbours are Irene and Bob Andrews (Trudie Styler and Brian Protheroe), who split up after Gil accidentally exposes Bob's affair with a prostitute. Afterwards, Gil becomes increasingly worried about Irene's intentions towards him.

The series follows both Alice and Gil's somewhat forlorn attempts to find the perfect partner, while it is clear to the viewer that they would be the ideal couple. The series itself follows each plot separately, cutting from Alice's story to Gil's throughout the episode. The only exception is the final scene of the first series, which shows Alice in the theatre watching a comedy where she is the only person in the entire audience not laughing - apart from Gil, who is sitting two rows behind her. They still do not find each other.

In the third episode of the second series, Alice arranges a date through a personal ad in a magazine. When he fails to turn up she returns home and rips up his photograph. She receives a phone call from Lloyd, telling her that his friend could not make the date. The reason is not stated on screen, but Alice, clearly shaken, picks up the torn photograph and reassembles it, it is a photo of Gil. The next episode, it is revealed that Gil died of a heart attack. In the seventh episode of the series, Alice is invited into Gil's world via Lloyd, where she begins a relationship with a writer, Douglas McVitie (Mark Heap). After a while she feels that there is little love in the relationship so she tries to break it up; Douglas, however, is determined to stay with her. Alice also moves in with Fae Maddison (Amelia Curtis), a famous actress she meets after a date goes horribly wrong.

Episodes

Series 1

# Title Written by Duration (mins)
1
There Must Be Some Way Out of Here
David Renwick
60
Alice becomes worried about her security after she discovers her estate agent has been doing her washing in her flat. Gil causes his next door neighbours to split up, and goes on a date with a TV executive.
2
Death and Nurses
David Renwick
60
Alice receives a disturbing text message from her Godson, and Milly has problems with her boyfriend after reading a magazine article. Gil toys with his Love Soup idea where Britain is run by tabloid newspapers, and gets in a tricky situation at a dinner party at Irene's.
3
The Reflecting Pool
David Renwick
60
Gil is asked to open a swimming pool, and meets a fan of his work, later discovering she used to be a Hells Angel. Alice tries to defy her boss when she is asked to make a speech using the text of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.
4
They Do Not Move
David Renwick
60
Gil is forced to watch a rather poor all-woman version of Waiting for Godot, and is then asked on a dinner date by a rather sexy actress. Alice bumps into an old friend, but later regrets their reunion, whilst Milly is blissfully unaware that her new boyfriend looks almost exactly like Jesus Christ. Guest stars Bernie Clifton.
5
Take Five
David Renwick
60
Alice finds herself the centre of attraction from the man living in flat number 12, and is asked to sign a petition to get a "Talking gravestone" removed. Gil is asked to join a comedy writing team to write a sitcom pilot for a talentless documentary star, and starts to become attracted to a fellow writer. In the meantime, Bob asks Irene for forgiveness.
6
War Is Heck
David Renwick
60
The wife of Alice's cousin Stephen is going to jail, and she asks to keep an eye on him and their daughter, but Alice starts to wonder about Stephen's intentions towards her. Irene and Bob get back together, and tell Gil that Bob's mother wants to see him. She later passes away, leaving a £17,000 fortune all to him, "For picking up my spoon."

Series 2

Reception

Views of Love Soup are mixed. Andrew Billen in The Times said that, "Like David Renwick's previous sitcom creation, Victor Meldrew [from One Foot in the Grave], Alice is meant to represent a bunch of prevailing attitudes. In fact, like him, she is entirely implausible. Happily, this fundamental error makes her no less funny."[2]

James Walton in the Daily Telegraph commented negatively about the loss of Landes saying, "In the first series Gil's job as a TV scriptwriter meant that Renwick could always add a bit of edge by attacking modern television. Without that, and with Alice remaining so utterly lovely, the tone is often surprisingly soppy." The basis for this was subsequently rendered redundant as Alice began to move in media circles via her association with Lloyd, Douglas and Fae. Walton also wrote however that, "Renwick does his usual professional job with the script, and Greig is as good as ever at registering various shades of disappointment."[3]

Sam Wollaston in The Guardian was critical of Love Soup writing, "I don't like the fact that so little happens. Or how implausible the few things that do happen are. I know it's meant to be comedy, not a reflection of real life; but it helps if comedy can keep a toe in plausibility (unless it's so crazy, like Green Wing, that it's funny for that very reason). But Milly falling in love with a shadow - actually more like a projection of a man on to the side of a van that miraculously happens outside her flat every night - well, that's just stupid. And I don't like its irritating jazzy soundtrack, or how small and British it all feels (and I mean both in the worst possible way). Love Soup is insipid broth and I've had enough already."[4]

References

  1. "Love Soup". BBC Press Office. Archived from the original on 2008-02-18. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
  2. Billen, Andrew (2008-03-03). "Mad Men; Love Soup: Weekend TV". The Times. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  3. Walton, James (2008-03-03). "Weekend on television: Mad Men (BBC4, Sun) - Love Soup (BBC1, Sat)". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  4. Wollaston, Sam (2008-03-03). "Last night's TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
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