If there’s one thing our society excels at, it’s turning a blind eye to things we don’t want to deal with. Whether that’s people who don’t fit our idea of “normal” or what’s going on behind other families’ closed doors, we’re taught from a young age not to engage, to avoid confrontation. BBC comedy There She Goes, which returns with a second season on Thursday, tackles these ideas head-on, refusing to let its viewers look away.
Based on the real-life experiences of writers Shaun Pye and Sarah Crawford, the show follows the Yates family as they tackle the mundanities of life with daughter Rosie (Miley Locke), who suffers from an undiagnosed chromosomal disorder and is non-verbal. With parents Emily (Jessica Hynes) and Simon (David Tennant) attempting to stop Rosie’s smashing, running and occasional biting, the show’s second instalment introduces them all to new challenges. A pub quiz. School sports day. A family holiday.
The Yates’s world is undeniably small, and things can feel a little repetitive. But that’s the point of a show based on the lived experiences of its writers. Interesting new ground is covered, though. Rosie learns her first words, and her brother Ben (Edan Hayhurst), who is not disabled, becomes a moody teenager who lashes out after years of accepting life as priority number two.
Seeing Tennant play against type as a not-very-likeable dad is fun, but as her Bafta proves, Hynes steals the show. She gives us a glimpse of a side of motherhood we rarely see, but not just in the sweary, comedy sense synonymous with shows like Breeders and Motherland. Those jokes are Simon’s forte, but Emily doesn’t have the distance to adopt them herself. After 11 years, she is exhausted from bearing the physical and emotional weight of parenthood and clearly still struggling, with flashbacks to 2007 showing how both how much and how little has changed for the family.
With its difficult subject matter and jokes that, by its own admission, cut pretty close to the bone, There She Goes is in many places hard to watch. But looking away is a choice not everyone has and this comedy has never felt as funny, heartbreaking or important.
