Neither did Cloud.
I'm not sure if this was related to anything we did/ate/watched yesterday, but either way I didn't sleep.
So frankly I feel TRASHED.
But still: a hour of David Tennant being lovely, and romantic, and frustrated and weeping - worthwhile in my books.
The ratings were... okay, given Downton Abbey held firm and it was a competitive slot for attention from largely the same sort of audience.
But I think that Tim Dowling (incredibly - he's normally a bit glib for my liking) taps into the sharpest nerve for this drama: whether you can commit to such emotionally draining material.
For all sorts of reasons, various people I know watching Single Father found it hard. Frankly, I pretty much lost the plot only a few minutes in when Rita's lips move as she falls from her bicycle in her horrific and fatal collision with a police car, and Tennant - busy at his photography studio - (randomly, simultaneously) says "I love you too", out loud and to the bafflement of himself and those being photographed. That may have struck Tom Sutcliffe as melodramatic, but for me it worked.
If anything, the worst element of the whole piece - heightening melodrama in the worst possible way - was the music.
Blimey, made the worst of Murray Gold in Doctor Who seem positively subtle in his underscoring.
I wasn't the only one disturbed by the music:
The horrible background music, sort of sub-rock desperately trying to sound expressive, frogmarched you unceremoniously to whichever point of the emotional compass the director had decided he was trying to convey in each scene.And again on the music:
However, quite a bit of the action was marred by blaring intrusive music, which obscured bits of dialogue and distracted from the measured direction and performances.Anyway, by the end of the show I had a splitting headache from trying too hard not to cry. I should have just crumpled as Tennant so expertly portrayed.
At least it would have come without an over-done music score.
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