In the early 20th Century, the Suffragette movement fought and campaigned to give women independence and the vote, but what has modern woman done with this privilege?

They’ve made Hope Springs, what a waste.

The opening scenes draw heavily from Hustle, and any prison based drama you can think of. Throughout proceedings the viewer is reminded of the sanctity of sisterhood, sisters doing it for themselves, female empowerment, bra burning, and some other related cliché.

It is ludicrous of course; we all know that women aren’t capable of conjuring plans, ideas, or thoughts of their own. As a result we’re quickly reminded that this is a work of TV fiction, it isn’t real. That and the slightly surreal nature of the programme mean you never get drawn into realms of reality or silly things like that.

Fans of expletives might recognise Paul Higgins of The Thick of It and In The Loop, other pleasant actor-y related surprises include One Foot In The Grave veteran Annette Crosbie and woman of many voices, Ronni Ancona.

Here’s as much of the plot we can describe before our eyes start bleeding. Four lady ex-cons plan to fly off to a sunnier climate as a reward for serving a just punishment for past crimes with ill-gotten funds. However, a small snag sends things awry and they are forced to stay in a Scottish hotel called Hope Springs. The name of the series is Hope Springs. Most of the dialogue revolves around the fact that English people and Scottish people sound different, and that they inherently hate each other.

It is possible to derive enjoyment from this debut episode simply by trying to ascertain whether the main character is played by Tracy-Ann Oberman or not, well it isn’t, it’s Alex Kingston. There, now you’ve no reason to watch it.

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