Ockrent explores the tension at the heart of Dean’s life beautifully, torn between the present and the past, questioning the strength of blood ties, and layering in the aspects of class and race that figure into the equation. Paige Meade’s Cassie is a Southend girl through and through and her rough edges clearly ruffle the liberal well-to-do consciences of Helen Baxendale and Anthony Flanagan’s parents Julie and Nigel.
And unspoken through all of this is the issue of race – Dean and Paige are mixed race and so there’s an additional pull to the pseudo-reunification here, especially as Julie and Nigel had their own child after adopting Dean. Anthony Welsh plays Dean with huge grace, the conflict inside of him always beautifully understated but never less than compelling. The ending may be a little pat but it is an indulgence one is inclined to forgive.