The Big Hub is Open
It’s time for our first premium subscriber request: Molly and Mack!
Welcome back everyone. I hope you survived the summer holidays.
That’s such a cliché, isn’t it?? “Survived”, like it’s the Somme or something. It’s actually fine. In fact I asked the girls what their favourite part of the break was, and one of them said “having chicken pox… because we got so many surprises”, and my heart lit up. I did mum pretty hard through the chicken pox bits (treasure hunt, making cake pops, colour-in cardboard pirate ship from Lidl, sock full of porridge oats in bath). BUT ALSO we did go to Normandy and the Peak District, which I would argue were better than sticker books I’d hidden in the airing cupboard, but you know what? Play the hand you’ve got.
Now the twins are back at school I can finally turn to the contractual commitment I made to paid subscribers several months ago: namely, pay me and you can pick a TV show for me to write about.
Just as with university reading lists, it makes sense to pick the easiest ones first, so I will start with CBeebies’ Molly and Mack – as nominated by Lucy (it’s easy because we already watched a load of episodes). Lucy is awesome: I met her twenty years ago (!!!) when we both lived in Paris and we did things like go to Bal de l’X at the Opera Garnier. Now we live in suburbs at opposite ends of London but she is still a total legend, thanks Lucy! (WOW this is better than Cameo, what a great time to subscribe, hit the button below). Her children love Molly and Mack.
Molly and Mack is many things. It is extremely Scottish, very cute, and acts as a useful primer for the concept of a soap opera. It is set in the very SNP-coded “Big Hub,” a community space with different stalls, a children’s club and a cafe; imagine Affleck’s Palace, but founded by Jimmy Reid. Molly and her big brother Mack are usually at the centre of some drama which unfolds; their dad, a widower, runs the kids’ club. You get a couple of songs every episode (“I have an idea” and “Oops, Oh No”) both of which are annoyingly catchy.
It’s also a slow-burn romcom that unfolds over several series (SPOILER ALERT) the children set up their dad with Alice, a Big Hub stallholder, and series four concludes with a proper wedding episode: get ready to have a little happy cry.
Alice, as the theme tune tells us, runs the Near and Far Gift Stall. I wish I could look my children in the eye and tell them it’s possible to make a living flogging all the random bits and pieces one acquires while travelling. I’d be rich. Beautiful fold-out papercraft tram timetable from the 1958 Brussels Expo I found at a brocante? Oaxaca pottery jug I got as a freebie when covering the G20 in Mexico? Torch with a picture of Barack Obama’s face on it I bought in the absence of daylight while awaiting sunrise at the temple of Angkor Wat? As much as I love them, nobody is going to buy them. Alice is a peddler of lies.
Molly and Mack is also well worth watching for the ongoing, simmering feud between Moira (who runs the Big Hub) and Mrs Juniper, who manages the café. Joan Collins in Dynasty, generations of the landladies of the Rover’s Return, Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry… We love to see it. From constantly dissing each other's jobs, to wearing the same hat at the wedding, they’re a masterclass in female rivalry. Just watch the first two minutes of this episode. I’m sure it goes completely over the children’s heads, but it certainly makes me cackle away.
Just like Waffle the Wonder Dog, if you come in mid-series (very easy on normal, linear CBeebies) it can take a while to figure out who is whom. The huge casting win is that Molly and Mack genuinely look like siblings (as far as I know they’re not related IRL) so well done for that. On the other hand, Mack is supposed to be eight years older than Molly, but by the end, he looks waaay older. Casting teenagers is very difficult, a lot of people just go from 12 to 20 overnight while others take their sweet time; think of the “high schoolers” in Buffy or Saved by The Bell.
Anyway, I was poking around in the process of writing this and found out James Mackenzie, who plays the dad, is the same age as my husband, and just gave up in despair; what is JM’s skincare regime? Or did years of riding bikes in all weather and enjoying real ales just take its course on my sweet love’s beautiful countenance? I have an idea… I might buy him some moisturiser for his birthday.
I’ll stop now. The series ended in 2022 (the Guardian also love it) but I suspect that means it will be on iPlayer for at least another decade. If the “I have an idea” song isn’t lodged in your brain already, don’t worry, it will be eventually…