@5foot5 : Thanks. I didn't know that, though, anyone taking on that part after Dame Thora would have their work cut out.
With the Sarah Lancashire one, I did wonder if the fact she arrived at the vicarage, while the Vicar was making jam was a factor?
It did sound as if the Vicar was distracted by her jam making so she possibly didn't pick up on the sort of "love" for her son that SL was meaning.
SL also appeared to have a close, warm, possibly unusual relationship with the son and she clearly gained a lot of emotional support from him.He commented on her weight loss, new hairdo, lipstick, spoke to her about the menopause etc - not the usual conversation topics for a 15 year old boy!
Her husband, whose name we don't know because she never mentioned him by name all the way through(she just referred to him as "Dad"), seemed to be on the periphery of family life - and maybe that was the problem.The sort of support and affection that she should have been getting from her husband, she found in her son.
We know she'd lost her job (library closed) and that she missed it.
Was she, like Imelda Staunton's character, a lonely woman driven to the point of madness? - though she does indicate at the end that pills or no pills, therapy or no therapy, she still "loves" him.
Fascinating stuff.