A very royal scandal (Amazon Prime Video)
The Penguin (Sky Atlantic/Now)
M&S: Dress the nation (ITV1) | ITVX
Night sleeper (BBC One) | iPlayer
The script is likely written by screenwriter Jeremy Brock A very royal scandala new three-part Amazon Prime drama about News evening‘s 2019 interview with Prince Andrew, was mired in legal red tape – not least surrounding the prince’s reported £12 million payment to Virginia Giuffre, without any admission of liability. As with Netflix’s dramatization of the same interview, SpoonEarlier this year, the tones and sympathies flew in all directions.
One moment, Andrew (Michael Sheen) seems shrouded in carefully unspoken regret; the next, he’s waddling around comically like a regal Winnie-the-Pooh. Likewise, the mood of News evening Interviewer Emily Maitlis, played by Ruth Wilson (Maitlis executive producer), alternates between journalistic focus (sitting in pink curlers waiting for the go-ahead) and horror as she is asked by a news broadcaster: “How does it feel to bring down a member of the monarchy?”
A very royal scandal is much better than Spoon. As Gillian Anderson as SpoonAs Maitlis, Wilson delivers a distractingly deep voice, but unlike Anderson she doesn’t go full Beeb-ordained Darth Vader. Wilson also brings light and shade to a complicated woman in an ethically complicated situation. Here, Maitlis is depicted recalling her own stalker nightmare and realizing it’s not about her or Andrew: it’s about Giuffre (who claims the prince had sex with her when she was 17) and countless other victims of the late New York financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Similarly, Prince Andrew initially seems intended as a comedy, with his arrogant self-aggrandizement of his service in the Falklands War (“All [Charles] did was talk to the roses and fuck his goddamn mistress”). As the net tightens, however, Sheen nails it, and panic finally punctures the lifelong claim. Elsewhere, Alex Jennings is wonderful as the Queen’s wilting private secretary, Sir Edward Young; and so is Sofia Oxenham as the tormented Princess Beatrice.
After a few episodes of Nightsleeper I’m so distracted that I find myself trying to spot a branch of Upper Crust during the scenes at the station
Bits of the interview are re-enacted (Pizza Express in Woking and the rest), and this is where such dramas are labelled as self-congratulatory and self-aggrandizing. I was also shocked to see Epstein on screen (far too early for That(right?) Ultimately, this media/royalty conflict is reminiscent of The Crown in its prime. Hopefully that’s the Prince Andrew interview for now: it’s in danger of becoming a cottage industry.
Sky Atlantic may have to issue a statement saying that actor Colin Farrell is under the cumbersome bodysuit and heavy prosthetics he’s wearing for showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s new series The PenguinHe reprises his role from the 2022 film The Batmanthe covering goes beyond a costume; comparable to covering buildings. It could be someone there.
And that’s before you get to the deformed foot that results from the penguin’s wobbly gait: a fleshy, rocky mountain desert of twisted bones and scattered toes. Kudos to Farrell, by the way. As Oswald “Penguin” Cobb, he still manages to convey emotion, menace, cunning and more: narrow eyes that twinkle and pockmarked cheeks that wrinkle when an enemy catches on.
The first three episodes of eight are directed by Craig Zobel, director of Mare of EasttownIf Penguin seems like a DNA clash between Harvey Weinstein, Monty Python’s Mr Creosote and Tony Soprano, the series, a kind of Penguin prehistory, is a meeting of DC Comics The SopranosSet in Gotham’s ultra-violent criminal underbelly, it is essentially a psychological mafia thriller with a Godfather-level body count. Led by Farrell as the intriguing antihero, the cast includes Cristin Milioti as a mafia daughter who sprung from a mental institution and becomes a serial killer.
It’s downright silly in places (a gelatinous drug called Bliss grows on mushrooms in secret labs), and sometimes the graphic novel flourishes undermine the mounting tension. Still, after watching five episodes, I want more. The Penguin introduces a brand new template to a tired genre, and Farrell and Milioti burn up the screen. This could be one of the strangest, sharpest, most original thrillers you’ll see this year.
About new six-part reality show M&S: Dress the nation (ITV1), 10 amateurs compete for a job as fashion designers at Marks & Spencer, under the watch of presenters AJ Odudu and Vernon Kay, guest judge Mel “Scary Spice” Brown and a number of M&S executives.
I have a soft spot for TV fashion shows (Project track, Making the cut et al), with their material bales, passionate creatives with their mouths full of pins and unreasonable “four hours to make this” edicts. Dress the nation does not disappoint, and it is not long before mannequins are dressed in statement dresses. Unfortunately, some say, “I made this in four hours and it looks like this.”
You might also be wondering if anyone involved has ever heard of M&S, including those who work there. While the company is experiencing a renaissance, that doesn’t mean it’s Paris Fashion Week. Here, designers are severely criticized for being “too safe”, as if typical Marks customers crave the avant-garde and don’t just pop in for a nice jumper or a multipack of oversized knickers. As fun as it is, Dress the nation can also serve as a documentary about the risks of misunderstandings about your customer base.
For a supposedly exciting thriller about danger on a fast-moving train, Night sleeper (BBC One) is stubbornly underwhelming. Created by Nick Leather, who wrote the gripping, Bafta-winning Killed because you were different), this six-part drama concerns sinister hackers who take over, or ‘hackjack’, the British train network and spread messages (‘MY NAME IS THE DRIVER’) on station noticeboards.
A single night train from Glasgow to London roars past with a device on board and a handful of trapped passengers. A somewhat listless Joe Cole (spoiler alert) as a disgraced Metropolitan police detective is the only hero they have. Both Cole and Alexandra Roach, playing a cybersecurity expert, struggle with a plot that keeps bogging down like bad wifi.
After a few episodes I get so distracted that during the scenes at the station I just try to look for a branch of Upper Crust. Night sleeper wants to be the train version of Hijackingbut the car flies off the track.
Star Ratings (out of five)
A very royal scandal ★★★★
The Penguin ★★★★
M&S: Dress the nation ★★★
Night sleeper ★★
What else I watch
Frasier
(Paramount+)
The diversion of the second series of the 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 Always Already
(Disney+)
A new, devilish Marvel WandaVision spin-off. Starring the wild, campy witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), and also Aubrey Plaza (Parks and recreation) and Joe Locke (Charlie van Heart Conquerors).
The House
(Apple TV+)
Intense, stylish, French-language fashionista drama starring Lambert Wilson and Carole Bouquet. After a scandal, the head of a top couture label is forced to resign, causing everyone to grab power.