Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Paula Malcomson, Anthony Boyle, Brandon Brownlee, Darcy McNeeley, Lola Pettigrew, Kerri Quinn, Rhys Dunlop, Patrick O’Kane, Susan Ateh, Brid Brennan, Seainin Brennan, Joanne Crawford, Derbhie Crotty, Daryl Foster, Roisin Gallagher, Perveen Hussain, Grainne Keenan, Rory Keenan, Paul Kennedy, Edward MacLiam, Eleanor Methven, Clara Onyemere, Shashi Rami, Sean Sloan, Abe Smyth.
Even in these modern times, where people only stay together it seems for the here and now rather than the possibility of the long haul and all its infinite problems and personal regrets, to see or hear of a mother walking out on her children still manages to raise the prospect of shock in the community to a seismic proportion that when a man leaves his family. For all the talk of equality and gender balancing, this one moment in someone’s life seems to tear not only a family apart; it seems to go against society and somehow inverts upon old established ways.
Of course people become unhappy, it is not the soul preserve of any one gender and the drama Come Home makes that clear over the course of the three episodes.
It takes gravitas to be able to portray such broken down emotion, of the person left behind searching for answers and the release in the one who finally relented to their heart and head and took courage to walk out the door and it is courage that sees a woman leave her children behind. Sometimes it is driven by fear, occasionally out of greed for a better life they believe is theirs by right, now and then there is no reason but still the same spirit drives, courage, to go against society’s inbuilt prejudices and convictions, to seek out what little there is and make it their own.
With stirring performances by Christopher Eccleston, Paula Malcomson, Lola Pettigrew and Anthony Boyle, this family drama set in Belfast has all the kudos and status deserving of the sensitive subject broached and investigated.
The twist of the final episode doesn’t arise from a long awaited reveal into the lives of the two warring parents, that particular secret had long since been established, instead what the final moments portray is that for some families comprise, even in the most distraught of frames of minds, can be a healing factor and the realisation that when courts and solicitors get involved over access issues, there is no winner but the State. It doesn’t always work out, too much harbouring of ill feeling, of memories tinged with sadness and despair, of anger and of hate; this is the reason why pride gets in the way of anybody ever seeing a moment of happiness for the one who left.
A compelling drama, one that works well due to its setting of Northern Ireland where the family background, where certain issues of law can be seen as perhaps of out of step in a modern context and thought resides. Come Home is gripping, forceful and heartbreaking, for every family that has suffered this particular voyage, this painful journey to which never truly resolves itself, Come Home is a necessary reminder that people leave for many different reasons, some not even known to themselves, it is human, it isn’t pleasant but it is truthful.
Ian D. Hall