Ralph & Katie: a gentle comedy-drama about a couple with Down’s syndrome

Set in the Lake District, this BBC show is a spin-off from The A Word – but it ‘stands on its own’

Leon Harrop (Ralph) and Sarah Gordy (Katie)
Leon Harrop (Ralph) and Sarah Gordy (Katie) play a newlywed couple going through normal relationship mini-dramas
(Image credit: BBC)

“If you’re in the market for a gentle comedy-drama in which nothing bad happens, then Ralph & Katie may be the thing for you,” said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph.

Set in the Lake District, the show is a spin-off from The A Word, the BBC series about a family living with autism; but don’t be put off it if you haven’t seen that, because it “stands on its own”. It’s also very heartwarming – one of those “cosy sorts of shows, like Doc Martin, where every character is a good person and every situation can be happily resolved by the end of each episode (and they are only half-an-hour long)”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Comedy-dramas have got more “whizzbang” over the years, said Ben Dowell in The Times: higher concept, faster-paced, maybe bolder. Ralph & Katie, by contrast, plays out in a “cruelty-free world” in which the dramatic tension stems from miscommunication. It has a feeling, at times, of children’s TV drama; but there’s enough grit in the oyster to keep it fresh and alive.

It’s true that Ralph & Katie can be on the twee side, said Jack Seale in The Guardian. But it “isn’t just good-humoured, it is funny”; and in its best moments it recalls a bygone era of British soaps, Coronation Street in particular, before they became overrun with killers, adulterers and cast-obliterating catastrophes.