5th August 2014 - In the Club, BBC Drama, episode 1 review

Most people who know me will know that I don't watch much television. Most of my viewing time involves a small number of shows; Pointless, The Simpsons, American Dad!, and various sports shows. However, today, I sat down and watched a new BBC Drama entitled In the Club. It revolves around 6 pregnant couples, all in varying different circumstances. One are a lesbian* couple, one of whom is cheating on her partner with the sperm donor for their child, a man who is also the father of their teenage son (who the one who isn't cheating gave birth to when she was in a previous relationship with him) - which is a bit hard to believe. More believable is their subplot of said teenager son, who is struggling to come to terms with the fact he now has two Mums, referring to his mothers as "just mates" when a classmate asks who he was talking to. There is also a 15 year-old girl who hasn't told anyone she is pregnant, a first-time Mum-to-be who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy she is still uncertain about, and another first-time Mum who is suffering the typical nerves and worries associated with having your first child.

I didn't initially set-out to watch it, though. To be honest, I had no idea what it was, until I overhead some pieces of intriguing dialogue while making the tea for Mum and Dad. After giving them their drinks and watching for a couple of minutes - mainly because I noticed that John Marquez (who plays a character in Doc Martin, one of my favourite TV shows ever) - was part of the cast. Eventually, I left the room, and spent 5 minutes on the computer, but this couldn't stop my ears from drifting away from the PC towards the living room, where more dialogue was sucking me in.

I also glanced at the screen through the doorway from my seat, and saw that Will Mellor (best known as Gaz in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) was also a member of the cast. Despite not being a huge fan of Two Pints..., it attracted me to see a second known-face; I was furthermore drawn towards the show by the fact that he was playing an unemployed, 37 year-old father of two, with two on the way, who was desperate for a job. His character was shown turning up for an apprenticeship - that he had been sent to by the JobCentre - only to be refused the role because the man in charge "thought they were sending a lad". Despite the fact that character pleaded that he'd been for 19 interviews, was close to losing his house, and would "make the tea, sweep the floor, do anything", the boss refused to give him the job, saying "it wouldn't be right" to give it to him, as it wasn't "a proper job".

It was at this point that I turned the PC off and sat down in the living room. As someone who has been unemployed for a long period of time, this struck a chord. Hard. Later in the episode, he is so desperate that he robs a bank, profusely apologising to the lady behind the counter as he does so, begging her to forgive him - and to not press the alarm button (which she does, as it is her job). His completely desolate state, which ultimately leads him to turn to doing something he feels awful for doing, is very powerful to watch.

Not everyone knows that he was made redundant 5 months ago, though - not even his wife. However, she finds out later in the episode (talk about one guy having a shitty day), and goes on to confront him. Despite his protestations that he didn't want to worry her while she was pregnant - especially as she suffered a miscarriage in the past - she is furious with him, demanding to know when he was going to tell her. He replies "I don't know; 'cos everyday, I thought, 'well I'll get something', but there are no jobs, Diane". She angrily snaps back "no bloody jobs? Have you tried looking in paper?!", to which he responds - after a brief pause, and a stare that every unemployed person can relate to, a stare that clearly says "you have no fucking idea how hard it is" - that's he looked every day. She then asks him what else he's been doing; through a mixture of anger and tears, he reels off everything he's tried, including asking the bank for a loan, going to interviews, to visiting the JobCentre. It was incredibly moving to watch, and it truly resonated with me.

There are a lot of things that were great about the first episode of this programme; it was gritty, dark, emotive, and - the "woman who is cheating with her and her partner's sperm donor, who is also the father of her partner's son" aside - it feels believable and real. When, as the end of the episode, the 15 year-old girl gives birth to her child, it was truly beautiful to watch, and you genuinely felt emotion seeing her hold her child for the first time.

If anyone is interested in giving this new BBC Drama a watch, I recommend it. It felt very similar in tone and style to a previous BBC Drama that I loved called The Street, which was another dark, gritty drama, that had a total of 3 series, all of which were made up of 6 parts. Each episode chronicled the events that happened to a different set of characters, whose stories all intertwined with other characters on the same street during their individual tales. I recommend checking that out on DVD if you get the chance, too.

It is also nice to have something called In The Club that is better than that song by 50 Cent.

Link to the first episode of In The Club on BBC iPlayer

Thanks for reading,

Tom.

*To clarify; their sexuality is never disclosed. They are merely shown to be in a same-sex relationship.