Life after Life is a 4 part fantasy/magical realism drama from the BBC. It’s about a British woman named Ursula who dies and is reborn again and again, each time changing her life and circumstances in different ways.
Life after Life begins with Ursula being born dead because the cord was wrapped around her neck. Each birth and death was explained by the narrator (Lesley Manville). There were many of them in only 4 episodes! After her first death, Ursula was born again immediately, this time with a doctor there to save her life.
Each time Ursula (Isla Johnston at 10 and Tomasin McKenzie as an adult) was born, she entered the same family with the same parents and the same brothers and sisters. She was born in 1910 every time. Sometimes she only lived a few years, sometimes she made it to World War II, once she lived to be quite old. But each time she died, her life started all over again.
The series might have been trying to say that this happens to everyone, but nobody remembers it. Ursula however, did remember all her lives and deaths. She tried to learn from her past and avoid making the same mistakes twice. She tried again and again to save her favorite brother Teddy (Sean Delaney as an adult) from his death during the war.

In addition to her brother Teddy, Ursula also loved her father (James McArdle) very much. She had a horrible older brother Maurice (Harry Michell as an adult), a wonderful sister Pamela (Patsy Ferran as an adult). Sian Clifford played her mother. Her helpful and favorite aunt was played by Jessica Brown Findlay.
In her various lives Ursula met many men. A few were her abusive husband Derek (Jack Forsyth-Noble), a German soldier named Jürgen (Louis Hofmann), a childhood friend Fred (Anders Hayward), the rapist Howie (Zachary Nachbar-Seckel) and more.
In most of her lives, her parents sent her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Kellet (John Hodgkinson) because she told her mother that her nightmares about drowning or falling from windows were actually memories. Dr. Kellet was enlightened and helpful because he validated her feelings and told her that anything was possible.
You have to accept the premise of the series, but once you do it is consistent within its own rules. The actors and performances were excellent, particularly Tomasin McKenzie and the younger Ursula, Isla Johnston. The look of the English countryside and the wartime London were very well done. The series is based on a novel by Kate Atkinson.
You can watch this on Prime Video in the U.S. It’s different, but fascinating.
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