- Charles’ mum (Cathy Min Jung)
Charles’ mum. I can’t even remember if she had a name, but I will never forget how fantastically she ripped her son to bits and the Chanel suit she wore to do so. Throughout their entire relationship, meeting Charles’ mother is dangled in front of Marie and the audience alike, and she did not disappoint. Watching this horrifying man be floored by his mum’s total rejection of him is brilliant viewing. From her very first line (bringing up Charles’ ex-wife in front of his new fiancée within seconds of her arrival), to proceeding to deal the fatal blow of saying that “Charles was hard to love”, and the fantastic warning: “You ought to be more careful Charles, you’re almost thirty-three now. Jesus Christ died when he was thirty-three”, Charles’ mum wounds him more than anything or anyone else in his disgusting life and, for that, I love her.
The Serpent is available in full on BBC iPlayer, and airs Sundays, 9pm (GMT), on BBC One.
Words by Eve Webster