Mercado on TV: How the ABC remade Mother and Son, revamping the characters in a busy first episode

The decision to remake Mother and Son (Wednesday on ABC) is pretty unpopular, but why shouldn’t this classic be remade for a new audience? The original was over 40 years ago, so a couple of generations have never heard of it, and that title explains perfectly what this sitcom is about.

It’s also clever to see the new Maggie (Denise Scott) having a very different backstory to the first Maggie (Ruth Cracknell). No longer a war widow, Maggie is now a hippie who met the love of her life while travelling, resulting in two children of African heritage, Arthur (Matt Okine) and Robbie (Angela Nica Sullen).

Mother and Son: Too woke…too soon?

So far, so good, and I’m also good with changing the sex of Arthur’s (Garry McDonald) sibling, meaning he is no longer a conniving dentist (Henri Szeps), but now a loving lesbian married to Liz (Virginia Gay). Some fans of the original will probably roll their eyes at this and Mother and Son might run the risk of being seen as too woke. 

For the record, I believe in and want more on-screen diversity, whether it’s women, people of colour, the LGBTQIA+ community or anyone living with a disability. However, this often works better if it’s slowly rolled out, and allowed to happen organically after the audience has warmed to a show’s premise.

A great example of how to do this well is RFDS (Tuesday on Seven). It has a cast that is just as diverse as Mother and Son, but it wasn’t noticeable from the start because they kept some things quiet. Originally, Harris (Jack Scott) was a likeable but gaffe-prone male nurse but then halfway through the series he casually disclosed he was gay. He then met a bloke in the most unlikely of situations and by then the entire audience was rooting for them to get it on.

Mother and Son could have kept Liz (Virginia Gay) under wraps for a few weeks, and maybe it would have been funny to spring her on an unsuspecting audience. Instead, she is brought in during a very busy first episode which even includes a pointless moment where Arthur (Matt Okine) gets berated for not knowing the Aboriginal name place for Canberra.

The good news is that Mother and Son improves as the weeks go on, with ambitious storytelling that doesn’t restrict itself to an indoor set with a studio audience. It even inspired me to re-watch the first episodes of the original Mother and Son (iview) and some of it has not aged well. Therefore, I will be fascinated to know what others think of this remake, so forward your reviews to our TV Gold podcast. (email: [email protected])

There is only one other TV tip this week because it’s another brilliant Brit hit. The Sixth Commandment (Thursday on BBC First) is a riveting true crime drama featuring incredible performances from UK legends Timothy Spall, Anne Reid and Sheila Hancock. 5 stars, don’t miss it.