Before we get into Spent (BBC2), was anyone else a bit confused that Juliet Cowan, aged 50, was playing the mother of Michelle de Swarte, aged 43? Blimey, they’re having kids younger and younger these days, aren’t they?
However, let’s not dwell on that because de Swarte and Cowan put in peppy, watchable performances, de Swarte as Mia, a former catwalk model trying to hide the fact that she is skint, and Cowan as her mother, Chrissy, who is sweet and kind, shoplifts baby clothes and is on the brink of a mental breakdown. It is sometimes dark, sometimes weird and often funny, although not as often as it could have been.
Early on there was a dogging scene — surely an open goal for comedy — which didn’t really work and felt more contrived than amusing. Things improved when Mia looked after two dalmatians for a “power lesbian” who insisted she smell their breath and photograph all of their stools.
But de Swarte has great presence and is more than able to carry the bulk of the series, with the help of a strong cast, including Matt King aka Super Hans from Peep Show, as Mia’s wonderfully awful agent Mills. But here’s a puzzle — King is criminally underused.
In Fleabag style, de Swarte, herself a former model drawing loosely on some real experiences, makes the protagonist Mia selfish and annoying, which is risky. But, as with Fleabag, you root for her, recognising the empty sadness at her core, probably due to spending years in the company of drugs and appalling human beings.
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Mia’s spoilt-brat taste for life’s finer things after growing up with nothing and her ridiculous overspending on crystals and brunches has led to her being declared bankrupt in the US. So she returns home to London to find her mother has let a 14-year-old girl with a druggie mother have her old bedroom in her council flat. Mia is forced to go to a hostel where a man sucks food loudly off his fingers.
This series isn’t afraid of taking a light touch to heavy subjects, such as the morally bankrupt world in which a sleazy older boss is preying on a vulnerable 15-year-old Estonian model, Petra, and feeding her drugs. Mia shrugs that it’s only what she had to put up with when starting out, and is more concerned with herself and the sleazy boss giving her some work. I thought this was pretty honest.
• Read more of Carol Midgley’s TV reviews on The Times
Mia and her best friend end up rescuing Petra and taking her home. After a wash she promptly goes straight back to Mr Predator. “At least she was covered in vomit before,” Mia says. “It was a deterrent.” Now she’s “box fresh” and going straight back into the lion’s den. So although they meant well, they probably made things worse.
Spent is uneven, but it is worth the investment because of the nuggets of de Swarte’s observations. Such as her mum leaving the prices on the baby clothes she stole to give as a gift because she wants the parents to think she spent £60.
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A former modelling colleague explains to her why she doesn’t do this job any more now she’s older. “Is there anything sadder than going from a catwalk to modelling ‘his and hers’ pyjamas for Matalan?” she says. Mia, who is later elated at seeing her face on a box of tampons in a pound shop, would, right now, kill for a call from Matalan.
★★★☆☆
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