--- There is some discussion of key plot points below. If you would rather know nothing at all about the storyline, go straight ---
Made up of only two parts, Mayflies doesn’t “piss about”, but gets straight to the point. It’s also the way Tully, one of the two men at the heart of this beautiful story, summons his beloved childhood friend Jimmy, aka Noodles, from London back to Scotland.
“Meet me at the caravan tomorrow afternoon. Don’t piss about, just come”.
When Jimmy arrives at the caravan, overlooking a windswept beach on the Ayrshire coast where they met growing up, Tully breaks the news. He has terminal cancer, but he is not going down the chemo road. Instead, he’s wants Jimmy, a writer, to be in Switzerland with him when he ends his life in an assisted suicide. The rub is that no one else is to know about Switzerland, especially not Tully’s lawyer partner, Anna, who strongly opposes this way of dying.
Mayflies is a beautiful, moving series depicting the love and loyalty between Tully and Jimmy, who’ve been thick as thieves from childhood, always doing their utmost to elevate each other. Based on the book of the same title by acclaimed Scottish journalist and novelist Andrew O’Hagan, the London-dweller wrote the book after his own dear childhood friend Keith Martin died in 2018, aged just 51.
Ashely Jensen as Anna with Tony Curran as Tully. Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
In a script adapted by Andrea Gibb, O’Hagan and Martin have become Jimmy and Tully. While the book is written in two distinct parts, Mayflies the series interweaves the men’s most poignant memories of the past with unfolding present-day moments.
Talking about forming friendships when he and Martin were coming up, , “Our fathers may have found their friendships in the army or in a factory. Our children may find them online. In between was that moment when you made half your friends at bus stops with people who had the same mission as you: heading into town to buy the new Smiths record.”
Young Hogg (Paul Gorman), Jimmy (Rian Gordon), Tully (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Tibbs (Mitchell Robertson). Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
The boys and their group of mates are obsessed with music. With their life feeling narrow, escape was an ever-present dream, and music, their chosen ticket out. Tully heads up their band, singing with abandon, arms spread wide, surrounded by his mates, Hogg, Limbo and Tibbs. Even though the band didn’t have the longevity they hoped for, they found a way to avoid following in their “reluctant” fathers’ footsteps, Jimmy with his literary life in London, and Tully as a teacher in Glasgow, still fronting a band for kicks.
Just like O’Hagan’s mate on whom he is based, Mayflies’ Tully is the charismatic life of the party: The bloke whose heart is big enough to welcome misfits and knockabouts, and whose energy is wild enough to keep everyone up dancing all night with smiles never leaving their faces. His standard conversation starter is, “Top three Robert De Niro films”, or “Top three goals scored by a Scot”.
Tully (Tony Curran) is ever the frontman. Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
With Jimmy back in Scotland, both men are flooded with memories. The series blends the past and present with emotional intelligence, and also makes elegant use of stills photography, bringing substance to the men’s loyal connection now, thirty years on. “Old friendship is another kind of romance. It can make your life and break your heart.”
It’s Tully and Jimmy against the world, here, but it’s Tully’s life, and he gets to decide how to see it out. Jimmy, heartbroken but supportive, is propped up by his loving wife Iona, who is also friends with Anna and supports her through her advance grief. Anna is adamant Tully should undergo chemotherapy and at least make a go of extending his life with her, if only for a few precious months.
Tully (Tony Curran) and Jimmy (Martin Compston). Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
Here we have a contentious contemporary reality – the increasingly available option of legalised assisted dying – handled with confidence and honesty. There is no shying away from thickening the air with inevitable tension. You can almost see the jumble of thoughts and worries of each person around Tully, and of course, of Tully himself, although he wraps himself in the comforting armour of humour.
The series excels in balancing tragedy with comedy – they’re Scots, after all. Even with death looming – or perhaps because it’s so close – there is glee, there is belly-laughter, there are faces squashed by smiling through rivers of tears; there is a density and yet a disintegration of energy.
Tracy Ifeachor as Jimmy’s wife, Iona. Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
The performances are perfect. You feel the actors see it as a privilege to play these characters, these people. Line of Duty’s Martin Compston and Rian Gordon are adult and adolescent Jimmy respectively, Tony Curran (Dr Who, Deadwood) and Tom Glynn-Carney are Tully. Ashley Jensen (Extras, Agatha Raisin) plays Anna, and Tracy Ifeachor (The Originals), Iona.
Mayflies brings to light the beauty that can enter even the most painful scenario when respect is shown for an adult exercising agency over their own life, even when those around them disagree with their choices. It shines a light on the healing power of unconditional love that ensures all walk through such a momentous event with grace, if not agreement.
Rian Gordon and Tom Glynn-Carney as the young Jimmy and Tully. Photo: Jamie Simpson Source: Synchronicity Films
The series opens with Jimmy reading from by war poet, Robert Graves: “Show me the two so closely bound as we, by the wet bond of blood, by friendship blossoming from mud, by Death: we faced him, and we found beauty in Death, in dead men, breath.”
