The Split Up review – this soapy divorce drama is loads of lavish, nonsensical fun

2 hours ago 13

I do like a soap that doesn’t hang about. That works itself up to a creamy lather and invites you to shut the bathroom door against real life and dive into a hot bath with it immediately for a much-needed break.

The Split Up delivers full-on sudsy fun from the start. From the team behind The Split, it’s another glossy tale of a family-run family law firm specialising in the never-too-complicated divorce cases of any high net worth individuals in their vicinity. This time, it’s written by Ursula Rani Sarma instead of Abi Morgan, the family is British South Asian and the location is Manchester not London, but beyond that it’s very much business as usual. A case of the week functions as the still eye of the ever-growing storm composed of the love lives, personal concerns and professional ambitions of the interrelated lawyers and their friends, colleagues and enemies – who are often, of course, one and the same thing. Mild glamour meets much plot; viewer happiness ensues.

The new clan, the Kishans, comprises recently widowed patriarch Dhruv (Sanjeev Bhaskar), who is preparing to hand over the firm he has spent decades building from scratch to his charismatic, highly competent daughter, Aria (Ritu Arya), who is as driven and ambitious as he was at that age. But Dhruv is older now, and driven and ambitious youth does not seem quite the unassailable asset it once was. Caution and consolidation perhaps have their place, too. He ponders this quietly. Aria is too busy laying plans, busting divorce balls and dealing with her portion of B-plots to notice immediately.

The main complication to Aria’s narrative is her dad’s unilateral decision to add financial specialist Luke (Dimitri Leonidas) to the firm. Of all the forensic accountants in all the world … Luke is the one Aria had a one-night stand with at a conference a couple of years ago. His re-entry into her world delights her not, and would delight her boyfriend, Neal (Danny Ashok) – who was also her boyfriend at the time – even less. Aria and Luke had better keep their former association hidden and their relationship going forward strictly professional. That’s a very good plan. Like most good plans, it fails on first contact with the extremely hot enemy.

In the mix we also have Aria’s sister, Maya (Aysha Kala), who is a lawyer. Perhaps wisely, she took herself out of the melee a while back and just pops in now and again to lend a hand, in between raising a handful of kids and enjoying a strong and happy marriage, despite the long hours and late nights her husband (Tom Forbes) is putting in at his demanding job. Viewers hope that this is a sign of his unflagging commitment to providing for his family, but viewers have been here before.

Rounding out the family is little brother Kav (Arian Nik). He is gay, which is fine by Dhruv, but he is also requiring multiple goes at passing his law exams, which is not. Journalist-influencer Ashok (Mawaan Rizwan) is keen to take his mind off things. Though he is also keen to glean gossip about the firm’s celebrity clients. Viewers hope no personal-professional lines are crossed. But viewers have been here before.

Arian Nik as Kav and Mawaan Rizwan as Ashok in The Split Up.

Amid the familial and genital shenanigans (and they are not one and the same – this is not exactly a family show, except that it’s a show about a family, but it’s not THAT unfamilyish a show), the Kishans do occasionally muster some billable hours. In the first episode, these are mostly invoiced to Tash and Alex (Jane Horrocks and Lenny Henry, respectively), hosts of a wildly popular podcast about making marriage work, called Marriage Works, until one of them was caught in flagrante with a younger woman. Twist – it was Tash! The lady half of the couple! She doesn’t want a divorce, she wants an open marriage. Aria wants Alex to protect his assets. Alex wants Tash to be happy. Aria wants to eyeroll, hard, but Alex is an old friend of her father and she resists. In episode two, the guest star is Jameela Jamil, as another internetty type about to be screwed over by whatever the Modern is for “absolute bounder” until Aria rescues her too.

But ultimately, the cases of the week are very slight, forgettable things, clearly of little interest to anyone involved and the site of most of the weak spots in the script (“Our friendship is our legacy, that’s the real loss here”). It’s the multiplying personal dramas and the nicely drawn tensions and tendernesses between the Kishans – who are all depicted with wit and warmth – that will keep us coming back. It is great fun: lavish nonsense with just enough truth in it to stop it becoming utterly preposterous. Come on in, the water’s lovely.