Mix Tape (BBC Two, 9pm) is a bit of a muddle. This underwhelming four-part romcom, adapted from a 2020 novel by Yorkshire author Jane Sanderson, debuted last month on Australian streaming service Binge. The show’s writer, meanwhile, is Jo Spain, a novelist, screenwriter and former Sinn Féin political adviser, and it was filmed in Dublin, often against very conspicuous local landmarks – despite being set in Sheffield.
On one point, at least, the series is very clear: the late 1980s were the best time ever for music (it is set 10 years later than the novel, which celebrated the 1970s punk scene). It makes its feelings known by opening in 1989 to the riff from The Stone Roses Fools Gold (which just about came out in 1989, being released that November). We’re in the bedroom of music nerd Daniel (Rory Walton-Smith) – a young man with the world at his feet and a place in his heart for shy crush Alison (Florence Hunt), who he woos by creating mixtapes of his favourite tunes (The Cure, Nick Drake etc).
These star-crossed teens are destined to be together. At least they are until dark secrets in Alison’s life derail their romance. Fast forward to the present day, and Daniel is a middle-aged freelance journalist – portrayed as a tragic sad sack by Jim Sturgess (full marks for accuracy). Middle-aged Alison (Teresa Palmer), meanwhile, has fled both Sheffield and her Yorkshire accent and reinvented herself as a hot-property debut novelist in Australia. Inevitably, news of her literary breakthrough reaches Daniel, who immediately takes to mooching about like Robert Smith in the Just Like Heaven video.
None of this is within yelling distance of plausible. If he was that hung up on Alison, Daniel would have stalked her on social media long before the excuse of her being a newly-published author. As is the tradition with romcoms, Mix Tape also insists we regard as adorable conduct what in the real world would be unhinged if not sociopathic – ie, Daniel and Alison jeopardising their marriages to moon after one another after decades of getting on with their lives.
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Then there is the distracting Dublin-ness of the whole thing. An international audience might not blink as Daniel and his father are filmed on a barge at Grand Canal Dock, with Bolands Mill and those space-age new apartments over their shoulder. However, it’s going to take an Irish audience out of the drama pretty quickly. As will a scene supposedly filmed at Sheffield United’s 30,000-capacity Bramall Lane but which bears a much closer resemblance to a generic League of Ireland stadium.
Nobody sits down to a romantic comedy expecting oodles of originality. Which is just as well because Mix Tape unspools like a glorified cover version of Sally Rooney’s elevated romcom, Normal People – spritzed up with the weaponised schmaltz of Richard Curtis circa Notting Hill or Love Actually.
It also cheats by casting leads much younger than their characters. As the story opens in 1989, Daniel and Alison are about 16 or 17. But Palmer was born in 1986: she would have been three-years-old when Alison’s romance with Jim blossoms. Similarly, Sturgess was born in 1978, which makes him 11 when Fools Gold came out.
Why not feature age-appropriate actors? The answer is they would simply look far too old and beaten down by life for the story to have any lustre. There is also the fact that few in their 50s or beyond would risk everything for a teenage crush – a grim fantasy Mix Tape never sells. You’ve heard this tune before and done much better.
Mix Tape airs on BBC2 on Tuesday at 10pm
