For everyone TV review: The Split, Stan/ABC iView

★★★★★

Nicola Walker once again proves herself compulsively watchable leading a formidable cast in tightly written legal/family drama The Split. A family of divorce lawyers – a mother and two of her three daughters – deal with the day-to-day challenges of work while also navigating their complicated familial relationships. Hannah (Walker) and husband Nathan (Stephen Mangan, finally in a serious role he can get his teeth into) are having grave marital woes, further complicated by Nathan’s role as a barrister that Hannah’s firm regularly use on divorce matters, their work and home lives bleeding together in a multitude of uncomfortable ways.

Hannah’s father, long absent, turns up as if just to break his three girls’ hearts all over again – but he has deeper reasons for his return. The cast are all working at their highest level, and what unfolds is an unpredictable and often quietly heart-wrenching look at family – both the one we are born into and the ones we make as adults.