Nostalgia and wealth porn ain't what they used to be

There’s a dated feeling to the staid and lightweight ‘Play for Today: Never Too Late’, writes Patrick Smith, while the preposterous escapism of ‘Malice’ may yet find an audience

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Ah, they don’t make them like they used to. But props to Channel 5 for trying. Play for Today, the landmark BBC series that ran from 1970 to 1984, helped establish the careers of writers and directors such as Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh, Caryl Churchill, Dennis Potter and Ken Loach, took on subjects from the Troubles to race, class and camping trips, and gave emerging actors, from Ray Winstone to Brenda Blethyn to Helen Mirren, a proper platform. In resurrecting such a British institution, then, Channel 5 has already generated enough goodwill to withstand a choppy first instalment. And choppy it really is. While a warm, wistful glow envelops Never Too Late, a romcom about growing old and finding flashes of your flame, the result is soapy and staid, with the characters broad sketches working overtime for laughs.

In a story written by Lydia Marchant and Simon Warne, former EastEnders’ star Anita Dobson plays the frail but fiercely independent Cynthia, who, after collapsing at a funeral, is put into a retirement village by her daughter Amanda (Tracy-Ann Oberman). She hates it, naturally. Shackled within the controlling regime of Nina Wadia’s Heather, the oppressive caricature managing Cedar Wood, Cynthia decides to get kicked out. She looks at the list of rules – and breaks them one by one. No narcotics? Sure, Cyn will bake some brownies with a secret ingredient. No antisocial behaviour? Pff, Cyn will flash her fellow OAPs in a game of strip bridge. No exotic animals? Of course, Cyn will release a Gaboon viper in the common room. Further complicating things is the presence of Frank (Nigel Havers), a Seventies pop star with whom she had a dalliance half a century ago.