6 Legendary BBC Drama Series You Must Check Out

2. Mother Love (1989)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unPXDSOcIsc Mother Love is a BBC drama series featuring Diana Rigg as Helena - the ultimate mother/mother in law from hell. She adores her son Christopher -'Kit' to obsessive proportions and despises his father - her ex husband, a famed musician. Throughout the drama, Helena becomes more and more unhinged, believing secrets are being kept from her. Filled with rage, she engineers the death of her ex husband's new wife - an artist called Ruth. As the drama goes on, more and more people become entangled in Helena's web. There are flashbacks to her childhood and we see where Helena's murderous side emerged when she was a young girl. Diana Rigg rightly won a BAFTA for her performance in Mother Love. Hers is a very difficult role to play - it would be easy for her to lapse into a campy Mommie Dearest portrayal of Helena, but instead she is chilling and controlled in her seething jealousy, putting on a mask of apparent sanity in her dealings with people. But when folk aren't around her, her charming facade drops and we see her inner nutter. The story line is very exciting - including Helena's attempt to kill Kit when he is in a coma and her own grandchildren - and Diana Rigg is supported by a sterling cast of actors. You will never look at Laburnum trees in the same way again.