A real-life fashion victim
YOU could watch THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (BBC2) and think it was a fantasy. This dramatisation of the murder, written by London Spy writer Tom Rob Smith, plays with both the real and surreal from the outset.
As the story began on July 15, 1997, we watched fashion legend Versace (Edgar Ramirez) waking in his Florida palace like some Roman emperor. Clad in a puce gown, he wandered through corridors of frescos to greet his servants and eat fruit in a courtyard.
We segued from one fantasy world to another, the latter being the creation of Versace’s killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Narcissistic, shallow and high up the psychopath scale, Cunanan insinuated his way into an encounter with Versace at a nightclub seven years before. It was then that we saw the fundamental differences between the two men.
Versace, as he was shown here, might have had a flamboyant, extreme side but he’d built his very real empire by being real himself. While he told stories about his dressmaker mother, Cunanan reeled off garlands of nonsense about Imelda Marcos and the novel he wasn’t writing.
As the story segued into the hunt for Versace’s killer and the awkward comedy of blue-collar cops probing the sex lives of the fabulously famous, the needle flicked from facts to theatricals at every turn.
In a suit of black leather, Versace’s sister Donatella (Penélope Cruz) flew in to take charge, protecting the empire like the tough businessperson she is.
Outside the mansion, ghouls were dipping Versace ads in the fresh blood still spattered on the steps, and a surf bum auctioned the Polaroid he’d taken of the body.
An ancient man, tanned to almost the same shade of orange as his tiny trunks, distracted our attention as cops unsuccessfully stormed an apartment building in their hunt for Cunanan.
This was all real too, or the reality that passed for Florida in 1997. Some people turn their fantasies into beauty and wealth, some into nightmare.
I’m reminded, just a little, of a different kind of American crime story when watching DAMNED (C4). Since Hill Street Blues ended in 1987, few shows have succeeded in combining grit and humour.
This sitcom, penned by Jo Brand and Morwenna Banks, chips comedy gold from the unlikely setting of a social services department, where historic abuse cases and at-risk children share scenes with flying stew and misplaced Tasers. Rather than going for the obvious and making out that veteran social worker Rose (Jo Brand) and Co. are all bad at their jobs, the script makes them bad at everything but their jobs.
It also remembers that one killer line is worth a thousand banana skins. Last night, Rose told colleague Al (Alan Davies) she was going on a date with the brother of their boss, Denise. Al wondered what he looked like. “Denise in slacks? The paramilitary wing of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau?”
Meanwhile, ex-policeman Nitin (Himesh Patel) visited a struggling father and wondered if he might be depressed. “Do you think that might be something to do with the fact that you’re in my house?” replied his client.
Amid the authentic scenarios, you do sometimes feel guilty for laughing but then again, you’re damned if you don’t.