On 4 April 2022, BBC One’s The Split returned for its much-anticipated third and final season. The legal drama series has only three seasons with six episodes each running an hour per episode so it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon if you haven’t binge-watched it all already. All episodes are available for streaming on the BBC iPlayer or you can watch them on Mondays at 9 pm. Here’s a look at what to expect (without spoilers).
What’s the show about?
Written by Abi Morgan, the Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her television shows Sex Traffic, River, and The Hour and her films Brick Lane, The Iron Lady, Shame, and Suffragette, the plot follows high-flying divorce lawyers who navigate their own messy separations.
The Split was one of BBC iPlayer’s most-watched drama series in 2020. In the third series, a new love interest, Kate, will further complicate the relationship between Hannah and Nathan in the midst of their rocky divorce. Check out the tense trailer here.
Series three also sees Morgan behind the camera in her directorial debut for one dramatic episode.
The star-studded cast
The show features names you’ve definitely heard of such as Nicola Walker (Hannah Stern, a divorce lawyer at Noble & Hale), Stephen Mangan (Nathan Stern, Hannah’s husband and barrister), Fiona Button (Rose Defoe, Hannah’s youngest sister), Annabel Scholey (Nina Defoe, Hannah’s younger sister and fellow divorce lawyer for the family practice), Barry Atsma (Christie Carmichael, Hannah’s former boyfriend and fellow lawyer at Noble & Hale), and Lara Pulver (Kate Pencastle, a child psychologist and Nathan’s new love interest).
So, where have you seen these actors before?
Nicola Walker is an English actress known for starring in British TV programmes since the ’90s. She starred in Spooks and Unforgotten and won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and won a BAFTA for her role in Last Tango in Halifax.
Stephen Mangan played Dr Guy Secretan in Green Wing and also starred in I’m Alan Partridge, Episodes, Watership Down, the Postman Pat: The Movie, Hang Ups and Bliss.
Annabel Scholey is known for her roles in Being Human, Walking on Sunshine, Contessina de Medici, Medici: Masters of Florence, and Doctor Who: Flux.
Dutch actor Barry Atsma is known for many roles in the Netherlands but is known for the British film Hector and the Search for Happiness.
Finally, Lara Pulver is known for her role on the BBC spy drama Spooks, Da Vinci’s Demons, Robin Hood, and may also be familiar from her appearance in the BBC’s adaptation of Sherlock where she played the mysterious Irene Adler. In 2016, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a musical for the West End’s Broadway revival musical Gypsy.
What to expect for the third series
The first season examined the Defoe sisters and Hannah’s seemingly perfect life – perfect children and perfect husband – and grappled with themes of modern marriage and the legacy of divorce. What’s the fallout and can anyone really “have it all”?
In season two, we found out that Hannah had an affair with Christie and her relationship broke down with her husband, Nathan. Ten months later, the two have been respectfully negotiating their separation and divorce, reaching an amicable agreement. But will a shocking revelation redraw the battle lines?
The creator Abi Morgan notes the last season “is set to conclude proceedings with the most dramatic and heartbreaking series to date, as we watch a divorce lawyer confronted with her own divorce”.
Nathan’s new girlfriend, Kate, who is a successful author and child psychologist with a particular interest on the impact and effects of divorce on children will shake things up. Kate is also much younger than Hannah and her arrival on the scene changes Hannah’s attitude towards an amicable split.
The takeaways
It’ll be exciting to catch up and find out what happens and even though it’s a shame we won’t get our fix in another season; hopefully, it’ll be wrapped up perfectly with a satisfying ending. The story is raw, real, and heartbreaking and one that’s a sad reality for many – divorce and not being a divorce lawyer, that is – and it examines key themes in our society. Will you be binge-watching or catching up on Mondays? Let us know on social media.