Love Soup is a British television comedy-drama, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery (a role written especially for her) and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond. The series is written by David Renwick of One Foot in the Grave fame, and is produced by Verity Lambert. The programme was a critical success although its audience figures were steady rather than spectacular, netting an average of five million viewers an episode. Renwick and his former scriptwriting partner Andrew Marshall have cameo appearances in one episode as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.

As of December 2005, the series has been commissioned for a second run. The first series has been released on DVD in the UK.

Situation, Plot and the Characters

Alice Chenery (Tamsin Greig) and Gil Raymond (Michael Landes) are perfect for each other. They both like the same things, respect the same things, and share the same belives. They only problem is that they are completely unaware of each others existance.

Alice is a modern woman with old-fashioned values. She is the manageress of a perfume company in a London department store, however she lives in Brighton. She is trying to sell her number 42 flat and move, but with no success. Her love life is no success either. She can never find the perfect man, and what is worse her co-workers, Cleo Martin (Sheridan Smith) and Milly Russel (Montserrat Lombard), always seem to having it of, even though their relationship never really last more than a week. Cleo and Milly try and pair her up with several men, but to no avail. She does have some family members (at least one cousin), but her parents, Arthur and Grace have both past away.

Gil is an American comedy writer, who has moved to England to start a new project. It is a series of six romantic comedies called Love Soup and he has been asked to write one of them. Things started badly for Gil when he arrived at his house (15 Carpenters Lane, Larch End), and discovered his then girlfriend was seeing another man as soon as they arrived in the country. His next door neighbours are Irene and Bob Andrews (Trudie Styler and Brian Protheroe), who split up after Gil accidentally exposes Bob's affair with a prostitute. Afterwards, he becomes increasingly worried about Irene's intentions towards him.

The series follows their somewhat forlorn attempts to find the perfect partner, whilst the viewer knowns that Alice and Gil are the ideal couple. The series itself follows each plot seperately, cutting from Alice's story to Gil's throughout the episode. The final scene of series one however was different. It showed Alice at a comic play where she was the only person in the entire audience not laughing, with the exception of Gil who sitting two rows back, and they still do not find each other.

Episodes

Series 1

• Episode 1 – There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here – Alice becomes worried about her security after she discovers her estate agent has been doing her washing in her flat. Gil causes his next door neighbours to split up, and goes on a date with a TV executive.

• Episode 2 – Death and Nurses – Alice recieves a disturbing text message from her Godson, and Milly has problems with her boyfriend after reading a magazine article. Gil toys with his Love Soup idea where Britain is run by tabloid newspapers, and gets in a tricky situation at a dinner party at Irene's.

• Episode 3 – The Reflecting Pool – Gil is asked to open a swimming pool, and meets a fan of his work, later discovering she used to be a Hell's Angel. Alice tries to defy her boss when she is asked to make a speech, using the text of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

• Episode 4 – They Do Not Move – Gil is forced to watch a rather poor all-woman version of Waiting for Godot, and is then asked on a dinner date by a rather sexy actress. Alice bumps into an old friend, but later regrets their reunion, whilst Milly is blissfully unaware that her new boyfriend looks almost exactly like Jesus Christ. Guest stars Bernie Clifton.

• Episode 5 – Take Five – Alice finds herself the centre of attraction from the man living in flat number 12, and is asked to sign a petition to get a "Talking gravestone" removed. Gil is asked to joined a comedy writing team to write a sitcom pilot for a talentless documentary star, and starts to become attracted to a fellow writer. In the meantime, Bob asks Irene for forgiveness.

• Episode 6 – War Is Heck – The wife of Alice's cousin Stephen is going to jail, and she asks to keep an eye on him and their daughter, but Alice starts to wonder about Alice's inentions towards her. Irene and Bob get back together, and tell Gil that Bob's mother wants to see him. She later passes away, leaving a £17,000 fortune all to him, "For picking up my spoon."

External links

• Love Soup at bbc.co.uk.
• Love Soup at the Internet Movie Database.
• Woman's Hour interview, 28 September 2005.

Comedy-drama television series | BBC television dramas