by A Very Royal Scandal (Amazon Prime Video)
The Penguin (Atlantic Sky/Now)
M&S: Dress of the Nation (ITV1) | ITVX
Night sleep (BBC One) | iPlayer
Probably, Jeremy Brock’s screenwriter A Very Royal ScandalAmazon Prime’s new three-part drama about it News NightA 2019 interview with Prince Andrew was mired in legal red tape – notably around a reported £12m payment to the prince to Virginia Giuffre, with no acknowledgment of liability. Like the Netflix drama on the same interview, Scoopearlier this year, tones and sympathy were getting worse all over the place.
One moment Andrew (Michael Sheen) seems to regret carefully not speaking; the next he’s barking hilariously about how royal Winnie-the-Pooh would be. Likewise, the mood of News Night the interviewer Emily Maitlis, played by Ruth Wilson (executive producer Maitlis), ricochets between journalistic focus (sitting in pink curlers waiting for the progress) and horror, when questioned by a news channel: “How to feel he to take down a member of the monarchy?”
A Very Royal Scandal much better than Scoop. Like Gillian Anderson as ScoopAnd Maitlis, Wilson delivers an extremely deep voice, but unlike Anderson she doesn’t quite go with Darth Vader, which has been ordered by the Beeb. Wilson also brings light and shade to a complicated woman in a complicated ethical situation. Here, Maitlis is shown recalling her own stalking nightmare, and realizing that it’s not about her, or Andrew: it’s about Giuffre (who the prince alleges she had sex with when she was 17) and the many victims another by the financier from New York Jeffrey. Epstein.
Likewise, Prince Andrew appears to have been initially playing for comedy, with unabashed self-praise about serving in the Falklands war (“All [Charles] talk to the roses and shag their fucking mistress”). As the count tightens, however, Sheen nails it, and Panic finally applies the title of a lifetime. Elsewhere, Alex Jennings is excellent as the Queen’s sleazy private secretary, Sir Edward Young; so also Sofia Oxenham as the anguted Princess Beatrice.
A few episodes into Nightsleeper, I’m so disconnected that I’m trying to see a branch of the Upper Crust during the station scene.
A chunk of the interview is re-enacted (Pizza Express in Woking and the rest), and this is where such dramas are labeled as getting worse. I was also surprised to see Epstein portrayed on screen (much too soon for tosure?) Ultimately, this media/royalty fight is memorable The Crown in its base. Although that’s expected to be Prince Andrew’s interview for a while: it risks turning into a cottage industry.
Sky Atlantic may have to swear an affidavit that actor Colin Farrell is beneath the bodysuit and heavy prosthetics he wears for presenter Lauren LeFranc’s new series The Penguin. His role was revived from the 2022 film The Batmanthe engulfing passes over a suit; such as building cladding. It could be no one into it.
That’s before you even get to the misshapen foot, causing the wrinkled penguin’s gait: a meaty, rocky mountain of twisted bones and splayed toes. All credit to Farrell, though. As Oswald “Penguin” Cobb, he still manages to convey emotion, menace, cunning and more: narrow eyes shining and puckered jaws fluttering when the enemy manages to defeat him.
Craig Zobel is the director of the first three episodes of eight Mare of Eastown. If Penguin is like a DNA collision between Harvey Weinstein, Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote and Tony Soprano, then the series, a kind of Penguin prehistory, meets DC Comics The Sopranos. Set in Gotham’s ultra-violent criminal underbelly, it’s really a psychological mafia thriller with Father God-body count level. With Farrell at the helm as the anti-hero of the scheme, that musician includes Cristin Milioti as a mafia daughter who emerged from a mental asylum and is said to be a serial killer.
It’s gory in places (a jelly-like drug called Bliss grows on mushrooms in secret labs), and the graphic novel sometimes undermines the rising tension. Still, after watching five episodes I’m eager for more. The Penguin A brand new template is introduced in an exhausted genre, and Farrell and Milioti burn up the screen. This could be one of the weirdest, sharpest and most original thrillers you’ll see all year.
On a new six-part reality show M&S: Dress the Nation (ITV1), 10 amateurs compete for a job as a fashion designer at Marks & Spencer, led by presenters AJ Odudu and Vernon Kay, guest judge Mel “Scary Spice” Brown and several M&S executives.
I have a soft spot for TV fashion shows (Project Runway, Making the Cut et al). Dress of the Nation Do not disappoint, and soon there will be mannequins dressed in statement dresses. Sadly, with some, the statement is: “I made this in four hours and it looks like it.”
You might also be wondering if anyone involved has heard of M&S, including those who work for it. Although the company is improving, it’s not the same as Paris fashion week. Here, designers pay a lot of attention to being “too safe”, as if Marks’ typical customers want the avant garde and aren’t just popping in for a cute sweater or a multipack of big knick-knacks. Fun as it is, Dress of the Nation It could double as a documentary about the risks of misunderstanding your customer base.
For a thrilling thriller about danger on a fast-moving train, Night sleep (BBC One) stubbornly empowered. Created by Nick Leather, who wrote the poignant, Bafta-winning Murder for Being Different), this six-part drama finds sinister hackers taking over, or “hack-jacking”, Britain’s train network and splattering messages (“MY DRIVER’S NAME”) across station notice boards.
One overnight train from Glasgow to London is injured as well as an on-board device and a passenger spark is caught. Their only hero is the slightly listless Joe Cole (spoiler alert) as a disgraced City police detective. Both Cole and Alexandra Roach, playing a cybersecurity expert, struggle with a plot that keeps packing up like bad wifi.
A few episodes in, I’m so disconnected that I’m absent trying to see a branch of the Upper Crust during the station scene. Night sleep trying to be the train version of it Kidnappingbut he gets off track.
Star ratings (out of five)
A Very Royal Scandal ★★★★
The Penguin ★★★★
M&S: Dress of the Nation ★★★
Night sleep ★★
What else am I looking at?
Frasier
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The second series of Frasier reboot, with Kelsey Grammer leading the mostly new cast. Nicholas Lyndhurst (yes, Rodney Trotter) returns as Frasier’s professor friend. No match for the peerless original, but better than you might think.
Agatha all free
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Amazing new Marvel WandaVision side benefit. As campy wild witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), she also stars Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Joe Locke (Charlie from Heartstoppers).
The Maison
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An intense, stylish, French fashionista drama starring Lambert Wilson and Carole Bouquet. After a scandal, the head of a top couture label is forced to stand down, leaving everyone wanting for power.
