This show was introduced to me as "The Office... set in a brothel!", and while it's a somewhat accurate description, it is actually an entirely different animal underneath.
What we have here is simply a very tender love story between Michael, the disaffected and lonely middle-aged married man, whose marriage is staler than a six week old kebab in a student's flat, and Hayley, the coquettish prostitute with whom he maintains a "talking" relationship.
What could have been a smutty exercise in "phwoar, phwoar!" puns and unpleasant set-pieces, actually turns out to have enormous heart and warmth in a beautifully understated manner, without the saccharine fairy-tale moments of something like "Pretty Woman."
"Respectable" deserves full respect for being witty, charming and incredibly down-to-earth... with a happy ending.
What we have here is simply a very tender love story between Michael, the disaffected and lonely middle-aged married man, whose marriage is staler than a six week old kebab in a student's flat, and Hayley, the coquettish prostitute with whom he maintains a "talking" relationship.
What could have been a smutty exercise in "phwoar, phwoar!" puns and unpleasant set-pieces, actually turns out to have enormous heart and warmth in a beautifully understated manner, without the saccharine fairy-tale moments of something like "Pretty Woman."
"Respectable" deserves full respect for being witty, charming and incredibly down-to-earth... with a happy ending.