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The Outside Dog is the seventh of 12 episodes using the original Alan Bennett scripts but with new actors.
Marjory isn’t in the greatest relationship with husband Stuart, and it’s partly down to his dog, Tina, but he’s also partly to blame.
Aside from her thinking the dog stares at her, she recounts her other half doing some fly-tipping, then coming home, putting his clothes in the washing machine and then getting into bed with nothing on, much to her disgust, and that’s even before another time when Tina interrupts their time ‘together’.
She doesn’t like his mother, either, who dyes her hair and wants to smoke in the house. In fact, I don’t think she likes anyone.
Along the way and in no particular order, there’s a killer on the loose, there’s a court case, the police come round because of the dog, and she spots a woman across the road who’s just had four pizzas delivered, even though she lives on her own.
As a ‘Talking Heads‘ episode, though, I didn’t really get into this one – there was just nothing that resonated with me, so it’s not one I can recommend.
Finally, this episode is set in the 1990s so, for example, at one point, the letterbox clatters and it’s the delivery for the local paper. I still remember whne they stopped making those, but then I never read it anyway.
The Outside Dog: Talking Heads is on BBC1 on Tuesday June 30th at 9.35pm. The series is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
However, you can also the Original Talking Heads series on DVD.
The entire series is now available on the BBC iPlayer.
Score: 4/10
Director: Nadia Fall
Writer: Alan Bennett
Marjory: Rochenda Sandall
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.