---
title: "Last Tango in Halifax"
year: 2012
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/last-tango-in-halifax"
fi1m_id: "last-tango-in-halifax"
imdb_id: "tt2216156"
tmdb_id: 47801
wikidata_id: "Q6494694"
fi1m_score: 79
critics_score: 77
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-10-07T16:06:31.567788+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T16:06:41.370264+00:00"
region: "MY"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Last Tango in Halifax (2012)

Created by Sally Wainwright · 1h 00m · Drama, Comedy

## Identity

Last Tango in Halifax

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/last-tango-in-halifax
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** last-tango-in-halifax
- **IMDb ID:** tt2216156
- **TMDB ID:** 47801
- **Wikidata ID:** Q6494694
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2216156/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/47801, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6494694

**Fi1m score: 79** · Critics 77 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two pensioners find each other on Facebook and everyone under seventy promptly falls apart

> Sally Wainwright’s drama about two widowed seventy-somethings who find each other again is warm, well written and acted with great care by Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi. The daughters are as good as the parents; the plotting, over eight years, is not.

## Synopsis

Halifax and the hills around it, the present day. Celia (Anne Reid) and Alan (Derek Jacobi), both widowed and both past seventy, were sweethearts at school in the 1950s and have not spoken since. Their grandchildren put them on Facebook; within a week they have arranged to meet in a café in Skipton, and within the afternoon they have decided to marry. Their daughters are less sure. Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) is a headteacher in Harrogate whose husband John (Tony Gardner) has just walked back in after leaving her for another woman. Gillian (Nicola Walker) runs a sheep farm on her own, with a teenage son, Raff (Josh Bolt), and a late husband’s brother, Robbie (Dean Andrews), who does not think much of her. The two families, with nothing in common but the engagement, are now expected to get on.

## Review

Sally Wainwright’s series starts from a premise so simple it hardly counts as one. Two widowed people in their seventies, who were sweet on each other at school in Halifax and lost touch, are put on Facebook by their grandchildren, find each other, meet for a cup of tea and decide to get married. That is the first episode. Five series followed, from 20 November 2012 to a four-part run in 2020, with a fourth series only two episodes long, and the question each time was whether anything else in it could be as good as those two.

Anne Reid’s Celia is quick, proud and inclined to say the unkind thing first and think about it afterwards. Derek Jacobi’s Alan is slower, kinder and plainly astonished that this is happening to him. The scene in which they meet again, in a café in Skipton, is played with almost nothing: he stands up, she sees him, neither of them knows what to do with their hands. It moved us far more than two pensioners having tea has any right to, and what did it was Jacobi’s face, which goes from nerves to something like relief in one shot that nobody is in a hurry to cut away from.

The daughters make it a drama rather than a sweet thing. Sarah Lancashire’s Caroline runs a school in Harrogate and a cold, expensive house, and has let her husband John (Tony Gardner) move back in after he left her for another woman, less because she wants him than because the alternative is a conversation. She is also, carefully and not yet out loud, involved with Kate (Nina Sosanya), a teacher at her school. Nicola Walker’s Gillian runs a sheep farm up the hill with her son Raff (Josh Bolt) and a brother-in-law, Robbie (Dean Andrews), who blames her for things she may or may not have done. Walker plays her as a woman who apologises before she has finished the sentence that needs apologising for. We laughed at Caroline often, because Lancashire can wither a man by pouring his coffee, and then noticed how frightened she is.

Sam McCurdy and Alan Almond shoot the two houses as two countries. Caroline’s is pale wood, glass and a kitchen island you could land a plane on; Gillian’s is dark stone, mud to the door and a table with a dog under it. The light outside both is the same flat Yorkshire grey, so the money changes the inside and nothing else. Wainwright writes talk the way people talk, over each other and off the subject, and the cast is allowed to finish a thought before the scene ends.

What does not hold is the plotting, and it holds less with every series. Wainwright has a habit of ending an episode with somebody saying something enormous in a kitchen, and once you have seen her do it four times you start waiting for it. Gillian is handed a crisis a year, and from the second series onwards the farm becomes a place where things get buried, which we will not describe, except to say that the show is better at quiet trouble than loud. John drifts in and out as the standing joke and is given a scene or two of real pain that the writing does not follow up. The two short later runs, in 2016 and 2020, arrive with big decisions already taken off screen and spend half their length catching us up.

Against Wainwright’s own work it is the gentle one. [*Happy Valley*](https://film.one/tv/happy-valley-2014) (2014), also with Lancashire, took the same corner of West Yorkshire and filled it with violence; this takes the same hills and fills them with people who cannot say what they mean to the people they love. Most critics have been warmest about Reid and Jacobi, but we would put Walker alongside them. She has the hardest job in it, making a woman who keeps wrecking her own life worth eight years of our company.

Start with the first series and watch it in a week. It is six hours and it is complete. If you go on, and you probably will, know that the ground gets softer under you, and that every so often somebody in a nice kitchen is about to say something nobody asked to hear.

*Fi1m score 79, published 7 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Last Tango in Halifax, and they like it for the same reason: Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid. The praise clusters around the pair’s chemistry, described across the reviews as warm, quiet and grounded, and around Sally Wainwright’s dialogue, which several critics credit with making ordinary squabbles and everyday worries worth watching. The consensus is that the series is funny and bittersweet without tipping into sentimentality, and that the cast is doing careful work.

The reservations are modest and mostly about plotting. A couple of critics find the soap-like complications unearned, or feel they get in the way of the central couple; Variety finds the second run less buoyant than the first. The Guardian is only lightly engaged, though still won over by the leads. Paste’s complaint about the later run is that it is too short to develop its stories. The spread is narrow: nobody dislikes it, and the doubts are about construction rather than tone.

## Straight answers

**Is Last Tango in Halifax worth watching?**

*Last Tango in Halifax* is worth watching for anyone who likes family drama written with warmth and played with care, and we scored it 79. Anne Reid, Derek Jacobi, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker are all good, and the first series is complete in six hours. The later series lean on big kitchen revelations and softer plotting, so expect the quality to drift if you carry on.

**How long is Last Tango in Halifax, and what is it rated?**

*Last Tango in Halifax* has episodes of about 1h 00m. It is a drama and comedy series.

**Where can I watch Last Tango in Halifax in Malaysia?**

*Last Tango in Halifax* is not on any streaming or rental service in Malaysia at the moment. It is available in 8 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Last Tango in Halifax, and is it suitable for children?**

*Last Tango in Halifax* is a 12 in the UK and TV-14 in the US, and it is a drama about adults, not a frightening one. There is little to alarm the squeamish; the strain is domestic, with marriages failing, affairs kept quiet and, from the second series, trouble at the farm that we will not describe. Younger children would simply be bored; teenagers may well enjoy the rows.

**How does Last Tango in Halifax compare to 45 Years?**

*Last Tango in Halifax* and [*45 Years*](https://film.one/film/45-years) both put two actors in their seventies at the centre, but the series is the warm, talkative one and the film is the quiet, painful one. Rampling and Courtenay play a long marriage coming apart; Reid and Jacobi play a romance starting late, with two squabbling families around it. The film is the tighter work; the series gives you far more company over far more hours.

**What should I watch after Last Tango in Halifax?**

After *Last Tango in Halifax*, try [*45 Years*](https://film.one/film/45-years) (2015, Fi1m 88): Rampling and Courtenay on a long marriage; what Celia and Alan might have faced instead. Then [*Another Year*](https://film.one/film/another-year) (2010, Fi1m 87): Mike Leigh’s four seasons of an ageing couple and the lonelier friends who orbit them.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (★★★★★): Baker warmly welcomes the series’ return, calling it one of the best shows on television. She especially praises the cast’s superb acting and the palpable chemistry between Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/last-tango-in-halifax-seies-5-review-bbc1-401143)
- **The AV Club**, Sonia Saraiya (B): Saraiya finds the series warm and charming, with a moving, grounded take on love and mortality. She especially praises the quiet chemistry between Alan and Celia, while noting that some plot twists and comic turns feel unearned. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/last-tango-in-halifax-1798178283)
- **Radio Times**, Flora Carr (70/100, inferred): Carr’s headline and description present the fifth series as bittersweet and funny, with poignancy that avoids sentimentality. She singles out the everyday worries and squabbles for their poignancy. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/last-tango-in-halifax-review-series-five/)
- **The Guardian**, John Crace (65/100, inferred): Crace finds the familiar, predictable series better than expected, though he remains only lightly engaged. He praises the charm and commitment of Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi, whose performances help the show work. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/nov/20/last-tango-halifax-tv-review)
- **Variety**, Brian Lowry (60/100, inferred): Lowry finds the second season pleasant company but less buoyant than the first. He especially praises the warmth between Jacobi and Reid, while noting that familiar soap-like complications sometimes get in the way. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-last-tango-in-halifax-season-two-1201223514/)
- **Paste**, Allison Keene (8.9/10): Keene welcomes the series’ return but finds the season frustratingly brief, leaving its storylines underdeveloped. She especially praises the natural dialogue and the cast’s ability to make ordinary conversations compelling. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/last-tango-in-halifax/last-tango-in-halifax-season-4-review)
- **Den of Geek**, Louisa Mellor (85/100, inferred): Mellor finds the returning drama fluent, entertaining, and beautifully observed. She especially praises Derek Jacobi’s performance and Sally Wainwright’s finely detailed writing and dialogue. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/last-tango-in-halifax-series-5-episode-1-review-warm-hearted-pin-sharp-drama/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Sally Wainwright
- **Creator:** Sally Wainwright
- **Director:** Gareth Bryn, Euros Lyn, Samuel Donovan
- **Writer:** Sally Wainwright
- **Cinematography:** Alan Almond, Sam McCurdy
- **Editor:** Crispin Green, Richard Cox
- **Producer:** Karen Lewis
- **Cast:** Anne Reid as Celia; Derek Jacobi as Alan; Sarah Lancashire as Caroline; Nicola Walker as Gillian; Tony Gardner as John; Josh Bolt as Raff; Dean Andrews as Robbie; Nina Sosanya as Kate
- **Runtime:** 1h 00m
- **Release (Malaysia):** 20 November 2012
- **Genres:** Drama, Comedy

## Where to watch in Malaysia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Malaysia at the last check.

Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, FR, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Happy Valley* (2014): Wainwright and Lancashire again, in the same hills, with the warmth drained out and the dread poured in.
- *Mum* (2016): A widow, a kitchen and a man who waits; smaller, slower and just as kind.
- *45 Years* (2015), Fi1m 88: Rampling and Courtenay on a long marriage; what Celia and Alan might have faced instead. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/45-years.md)
- *Another Year* (2010), Fi1m 87: Mike Leigh’s four seasons of an ageing couple and the lonelier friends who orbit them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/another-year.md)
- *Elsa & Fred* (2005): Late love in Madrid, bossier and funnier than the Hollywood remake, and finished in ninety minutes.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/last-tango-in-halifax