The Power of Parker review – this comedy-drama wishes it was a Victoria Wood show

This series about a philandering electrical store owner is set in the 90s, and is full of lines that channel the Dinnerladies creator’s material. It’s a pale, if decent enough, imitation

The Power of Parker is a new comedy drama, set over a few days in 1990, about the implosion of businessman Martin Parker’s carefully built, nicely managed and altogether very pleasant life. He (played by Conleth Hill) is a respected member of the community who runs his late father’s successful electrical superstore. He has been married to Diane (Rosie Cavaliero) for 25 years, has a son and a daughter who are no trouble and they all live in a large, immaculate new-build with a pillared porch in a nayce part of town.

The only downside – apart from his decidedly unnayce father-in-law Dougie (George Costigan on fine, if unhygienic, form) – is that the business was more successful when his father was running it and Martin is in hock to local villains, the Slater brothers, for an amount that keeps getting further and further out of his reach. So it unfortunately becomes time to end things with Kath (Sian Gibson, also the series’ co-writer, with Paul Coleman), his mistress of 25 years, to avoid paying her rent on the flat above the abandoned butcher’s shop in which he had generously installed her when times were good.

The Power of Parker aired on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/m6toIVE

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