Anxiety in defining the older woman in contemporary British television drama: Gold Digger (BBC one, 2019—) and Flesh and Blood (ITV, 2020—)

This article draws on two recent British television dramas, Gold Digger (BBC One, 2019—) and Flesh and Blood (ITV, 2020—), to examine how female lead characters pursue fulfilment in later life. We have chosen these series because they are written and directed by women and feature older women as the central characters – in both the older woman could be seen to typify the “successful ager”. At the point we meet her, she has grown-up children, is wealthy, healthy, and is embarking on a romantic/sexual relationship. We are interested in what her privileged position brings to the narrative in terms of the power that she enjoys. Is she crafted into a sexually desiring and desirable woman, or does she self-actualise in other ways? And how does her own fulfilment conflict with her role as mother? While both series could be considered family dramas, we argue that the form of domestic noir, which is a recent re-iteration of the psychological thriller, is adapted to subtly reinforce key ageist narratives around the role of mother. This paper makes an original contribution to the literature by noting how both series use genre to unwittingly generate anxiety around the role of the older woman. We argue that in order to rupture the set script of the older woman, lead female characters need to be allowed to actively reject romance as the fulfilment of desires in later life.