Marriage (TV series)

For other TV series, see Marriage (disambiguation).

Marriage is a 2022 British television drama series, starring Nicola Walker and Sean Bean as a married couple in a long term domestic relationship.^[1] It was created, written and directed by Stefan Golaszewski.^[2] The four-part series opened on 14 August 2022 on BBC One. It was simultaneously made available in full to stream, on BBC iPlayer.

Marriage
Genre	Drama
Created by	Stefan Golaszewski
Written by	Stefan Golaszewski
Directed by	Stefan Golaszewski
Starring	Sean Bean Nicola Walker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Executive producers	Stefan Golaszewski Tommy Bulfin George Faber Richard Laxton Beth Willis
Producer	Lyndsay Robinson
Cinematography	Ali Asad
Editor	Simon Reglar
Production companies	All3Media The Forge The Money Men
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	14 August (2022-08-14) – 22 August 2022 (2022-08-22)

Cast

• Sean Bean as Ian, Emma's husband who has recently been made redundant
• Nicola Walker as Emma, Ian's wife who is a solicitor
• Chantelle Alle as Jessica, Ian and Emma's adoptive daughter and a singer
• Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Jamie, Emma's boss
• Jack Holden as Adam, Jessica's abusive boyfriend and a record producer
• James Bolam as Gerry, Emma's father
• Makir Ahmed as Mike, Emma's colleague
• Kath Hughes as Claire, Emma's colleague
• Ella Augustin as Maxine, an employee at the local leisure centre
• Hector Hewer as Kieran, an employee at the local leisure centre
• Shona McHugh as Emily, an employee at Jamie's company who is on work experience
• Kemal Sylvester as Paul, Emma's brother
• Miles Barrow as Mark, a restaurant employee who befriends Jessica

Production

In September 2021, it was announced that the BBC had commissioned Golaszewski's new drama, starring Walker and Bean. It was a co-production between The Forge and The Money Men, in association with All3Media International.^[3]

The theme tune is "Partita for 8 Voices: No 1, Allemande", an a cappella work by the American composer Caroline Shaw.^[4]

Episode list

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	U.K. viewers (millions)
1	"1.1"	Stefan Golaszewski	Stefan Golaszewski	14 August 2022 (2022-08-14)	5.44
2	"1.2"	Stefan Golaszewski	Stefan Golaszewski	15 August 2022 (2022-08-15)	3.32
3	"1.3"	Stefan Golaszewski	Stefan Golaszewski	21 August 2022 (2022-08-21)	2.93
4	"1.4"	Stefan Golaszewski	Stefan Golaszewski	22 August 2022 (2022-08-22)	<(2.32)

Reception

The series received mostly very good reviews from critics, and mixed reviews from viewers.^[5][6] The Telegraph praised the first episode and gave it five out of five stars.^[7] Ben East of Metro, similarly, praised the first episode and gave it four stars.^[8] Rebecca Nicholson for The Guardian gave the first episode four out of five stars, remarking, 'There is a pitch-perfect realism to the way these characters talk without really saying anything, then put across what they really mean while saying nothing at all. It’s so cleverly done.'^[9]

By contrast, Nick Hilton, writing for The Independent, gave Marriage two out of five stars, adding that the show would "bore you to tears".^[10]