To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Fans of The Split have been left delighted at the beloved drama’s return, two years after what were thought to be the final ever episodes.
The BBC programme, starring Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan, originally ran from 2018 until 2022 for three seasons, but was announced to be making a comeback earlier this year.
Instead of a full series, the Defoe family have reunited for two specials set in Barcelona, with Annabel Scholey, Fiona Button, and Deborah Findlay all returning.
The legal drama caught newly-single Hannah (Nicola) and Nathan (Stephen) years on from their divorce, at the wedding of their eldest daughter.
As expected, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, with ‘break-ups, reunions and like all good weddings, plenty of romance’, while the Defoe sisters weren’t able to leave their work behind, controlling the chaos of the prenups and divorces that ensued.
And fans can’t get enough, insisting they love The Split ‘even more’ now.
The Defoes are back! (Picture: BBC / BBC Studios / Sister)
Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker return in The Split specials (Picture: BBC / SISTER)
‘Loved The Split before, love it even more, these Barcelona episodes are great,’ viewer Zoe wrote on X.
Anthony said: ‘Loving this festive, two-part return of #TheSplit. I love everything about this show, from the characters to the theme tune. I just wish it was back for a full series.’
‘Beautiful. Incredible. Perfect. All I could have asked for,’ Taylor said.
‘#TheSplit is probably my favourite series of all time. Last night’s finale was absolute perfection – incredible acting, writing and stunning music, as always,’ Jen wrote.
Lucy-May praised: ‘Once again, as it always does, #TheSplit has left my heart both utterly broken & so, so full. Such beautiful writing & acting, every single time. Flawless.’
The series originally ran from 2018 to 2022 (Picture: Sister,BBC / Sister)
The couple are now divorced and living their own lives (Picture: BBC / SISTER)
Ronnie meanwhile begged: ‘This cannot be the last #thesplit, absolutely amazing writing & acting as always! please make more!’
Holly called the special ‘genius’, with several others asked for more episodes.
This comes after creator Abi Morgan told Metro: ‘Every series of The Split has ended with a wedding, part of the rhythm of it is that we’re often dealing with the fallout or the build-up to someone getting married or the pre-nup or the financial reckoning after a couple split up, so I loved the idea of taking the family to somewhere else, a different country, and a way of taking them out of all the armour they normally have.
‘Hannah doesn’t have her briefcase and her high heels and her suits, and her expansive, walk through, urban London and long glass lines and modern offices in the centre of town. It felt like a way of getting into the soft underbelly of this very different moment in time for this family.
‘We’d left series three with Hannah on this open prairie of like, “It’s going to be okay, but I don’t know what comes next”.
Newly-single Hannah heads to Barcelona for her daughter’s wedding (Picture: BBC / SISTER)
Fans have been left begging for more (Picture: BBC)
‘So I guess for me, the chance to go back and just let the incredible number of fans who had written to me and said, I’d love to know what happened, I’m just going to send you a postcard and go here you are.
‘So to me, it’s a postcard from the edge that says, “Look, here you go, here’s where they are”. This is where Hannah is and I didn’t want the series three to end with this idea that Hannah had to be in a relationship to be complete. It was always the idea that Hannah needs to really put herself front and center and find herself and focus on herself and understand herself.
‘But when we meet her at the start of the show, her kids are nearly cooked, her eldest daughter is getting married. She’s done very well in her career, but she’s used to living on her own now in the family home.’
Abi went on: ‘We’re really capturing Hannah at this kind of lost weekend, and you put that with the kind of dynamism of a wedding and the hen nights and the stag dos and the dancing on the beach and the sangria and the meeting up with the exes and the connections with your past and the arrival of the new… it just felt like it was a great melting pot for drama.’
The Split is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and continues on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.