Abstract
The ideal ageing masculinity is expressed in the fit able body that signifies physical and sexual functionality and productive citizenship. British TV series Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020), however, questions this idealised configuration. Focusing on the main male protagonist, Alan Buttershaw, this chapter analyses the various ways in which the series depicts his caring personality and the vulnerable ageing masculinity that he represents, through romantic and intergenerational narratives and in relation to other characters who differently highlight and interrogate hegemonic masculinity. As the analysis demonstrates, Alan is one of the ‘few good old men’, a form of ageing masculinity characterised by caring and an openness to vulnerability, qualities that are often repressed in youth.
The research undertaken by Katsura Sako towards this co-authored work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (17K02517).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The series, with a total of twenty-four episodes, ran for five seasons of a varied length. The episodes have no titles.
- 2.
This is the case with Willis, who still maintains his authority as an ageing tough guy despite the disclosure of his incapacitating illness (aphasia) in April 2022. Ford’s also legendary status as an ageing actor has been reinforced by his playing the role of Indiana Jones close to the age of eighty in the fifth instalment of the series (2022). No younger actor, as charismatic as he is, could be found to replace him.
- 3.
Wainwright is also responsible for To Walk Invisible (2016), Happy Valley (2014–) and Gentleman Jack (2019–), all first broadcast on BBC in the UK.
References
Armengol, Josep M. 2018. Aging as Emasculation? Rethinking Aging Masculinities in Contemporary U.S. Fiction. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 59 (3): 355–367.
Chivers, Sally. 2011. The Silvering Screen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Connell, Raewyn, and James W. Messerschmidt. 2005. Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender & Society 19 (6): 829–859.
Dolan, Josephine. 2017. Contemporary Cinema and “Old Age”: Gender and the Silvering of Stardom. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gorton, Kristyn. 2016. Feeling Northern: “Heroic Women” in Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley (BBC One, 2014-). Journal for Cultural Research 20 (1): 73–85.
Gravagne, Pamela. 2013. The Becoming of Age: Cinematic Visions of Mind, Body and Identity in Later Life. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. 2004. Aged by Culture. Chicago: Chicago UP.
Her den Hoonard, Deborah. 2007. Aging and Masculinity: A Topic Whose Time Has Come. Journal of Aging Studies 21: 277–280.
Johnson, Patricia E. 2016. Tangoing with Class in the BBC Series Last Tango in Halifax. The Journal of Popular Culture 49 (6): 1341–1356.
Katz, Stephen, and Barbara L. Marshall. 2004. Is Functional “Normal”? Aging, Sexuality and the Bio-marking of Successful Living. History of the Human Sciences 17 (1): 53–75.
———. 2013. New Sex for Old: Lifestyle, Consumerism, and the Ethics of Ageing Well. Journal of Aging Studies 17 (1): 3–16.
Kessler, Eva-Marie, Katrin Rakoczy, and Ursula M. Staudinger. 2004. The Portrayal of Older People in Prime Time Television Series: The Match with Gerontological Evidence. Ageing and Society 24 (4): 531–551.
Last Tango in Halifax. 2013–2020. Created by Sally Wainwright. UK. BBC.
Lennard, Dominic. 2014. Too Old for This Shit?: On Ageing Tough Guys. In Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism: Harleys and Hormones, eds. Imelda Whelehan and Joel Gwynne, 93–107. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marshall, Barbara L., and Stephen Katz. 2002. Forever Functional: Sexual Fitness and The Ageing Male Body. Body & Society 8 (4): 43–70.
———. 2021. The Embodied Life Course: Post-ageism or the Renaturalization of Gender? Societies 2: 222–234.
Martín, Sara. 2020. Masculinity and Patriarchal Villainy in the British Novel: From Hitler to Voldemort. London: Routledge.
Nicholson, Rebecca. 2020. Last Tango in Halifax Review—A Brilliant, Bittersweet Sunday Comfort. The Guardian. 23 February. Accessed 8 October 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/feb/23/last-tango-in-halifax-review-a-brilliant-bittersweet-sunday-comfort.
Segal, Lynne. 2006, 1990. Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
———. 2014. Out of Time. The Pleasures & Perils of Ageing. London: Verso.
Thompson, Edward H. 2019. Men, Masculinities, and Aging: The Gendered Lives of Older Men. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Thompson, Edward H., and Kaitlyn B. Langendoerfer. 2016. Older Men’s Blueprint for ‘Being a Man’. Men and Masculinities 19 (2): 119–147.
Whelehan, Imelda, and Joel Gwynne. 2014. Introduction: Popular Culture’s “Silver Tsunami”. In Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism: Harleys and Hormones, eds. Imelda Whelehan and Joel Gwynne, 1–13. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Woods, Faye. 2019. Wainwright’s West Yorkshire: Affect and Landscape in the Television Drama of Sally Wainwright. Journal of British Cinema and Television 16 (3): 346–366.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oró-Piqueras, M., Sako, K. (2023). A Few Good Old Men: Revising Ageing Masculinities in Last Tango in Halifax. In: Martín, S., Santaulària, M.I. (eds) Detoxing Masculinity in Anglophone Literature and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22144-6_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22144-6_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-22143-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22144-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)