‘English Marriage’ Is Top-Notch

A rule should be established commanding Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay to act together more often.

Their reunion Sunday night--16 years after memorably collaborating in “The Dresser” and two years after teaming in a London production of the hit play “Art”--yields grand results in “A Rather English Marriage.”

This season opener for “Masterpiece Theatre” is just a delight, a tender and amusing story about two aging widowers who bond symbiotically--much like a couple--after the deaths of their wives. Suggested as mutual therapy by social workers, their relationship is highly unlikely given the differences in their personalities, interests and social classes.

Reggie Conyngham-Jervis (Finney) is a big, bellowing, chesty figure of the upper middle class, his many indulgences including robust women and a few pints at the pub after dinner. Roy Southgate (Courtenay) is a timid ex-milkman of few words, fewer interests and no vices. Strictly heterosexual, their coexistence begins tenuously in the mansion where Reggie lives gratis under the provisions of his wife’s will, with Southgate taking a room there and becoming little more than a servant for the “squadron commander,” as his host, a former fighter pilot, likes to be called.

There’s too much nubby texture here to dismiss Reggie and Southgate as just another glib odd coupling. What they have in common are loneliness and poignant memories that invade the present almost as hallucinations, most often ones recalling their wives as young women during World War II. “Great days, great days!” gushes Reggie, whose words appear to be navigating a mouthful of cotton. “Best years of me life, bar none.”

The future appears to brighten for Reggie after he meets and falls for a vivacious boutique owner (Joanna Lumley of “Absolutely Fabulous”), although she may not be all that she seems. Also looming ahead for both Reggie and Southgate are cataclysmic events that promise to reshape their lives.

“A Rather English Marriage” is the best “Masterpiece Theatre” offering in some time, thanks in part to Andrew Davies’ fine script and Paul Seed’s almost lyrical direction. The latter is especially noteworthy during a pair of dreamy sequences in which Reggie and Southgate slow dance together at home like cotillion partners while envisioning being in the arms of their late wives.

Credit goes as well to Finney, who balances perilously on the edge of hamminess in a most showy role without toppling over, and to Courtenay, whose minimalist Southgate is crafted with nuance and subtlety.

As the relationship between Reggie and Southgate ripens, so does your affection for them as characters, making this a most rewarding way to spend a Sunday evening.