# The Split (2018)

> Three sisters who practise divorce law confront their past when their estranged father suddenly returns after thirty years.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/68129

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 18
- Episode runtime: 58 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Abi Morgan
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Nicola Walker, Annabel Scholey, Stephen Mangan, Deborah Findlay, Fiona Button, Anthony Stewart Head, Meera Syal, Mollie Cowen
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7631146/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: none
- Tone: intimate, bruising, wry, emotionally raw, darkly humorous

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively overall, with its first season strongest and later seasons weaker.

## Synopsis

The Split (2018-2022) is a British legal drama series created by Abi Morgan for BBC One, produced with SundanceTV and SISTER. The series follows the Defoe family, a clan of female divorce lawyers whose professional life is built around the messy private lives of their clients. Nicola Walker plays Hannah Sterne and Annabel Scholey plays Nina Defoe, with Deborah Findlay as the matriarch Ruth Defoe and Stephen Mangan as Nathan Sterne. Their settled routine is disrupted when the father they have not seen in thirty years reappears, forcing old resentments and buried secrets into the open. Each season plays out through the case files of the firm, where marriages break apart in courtrooms and consulting rooms while the family's own marriages and loyalties fray in parallel. The engine is the tension between the sisters' need to keep their practice intact and the emotional pull of a father who never explained his absence. Across three six-episode seasons the show balances sharp courtroom exchanges with domestic confrontation, infidelity, and the strain of trying to rebuild trust. The tone is intimate and bruising, with wry moments of dark humour undercutting raw emotional scenes. Fans of Silk, Suits and The Affair will find resonance in its blend of legal workplace stakes and adult family drama set in contemporary London.

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- [The Guilty (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/51931)
- [Eternal Law (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39411)
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- [Back to Life (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/75133)
- [Silk (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/34735)
- [Apple Tree Yard (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/61084)
- [Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/94980)

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