Adult Material
Channel 4, Mondays, 10pm
The word “unflinching” is over-used. It’s routinely employed to describe any film or TV show with a vaguely gritty subject matter. But this new four-part drama exploring the porn industry through the eyes of the women involved, really doesn’t flinch from depicting the realities of this sometimes gruesomely exploitative world, which at the same time pays women more than men. That’s not to say it’s full of explicit sex and nudity. Instead, the drama, written by Lucy Kirkwood (Chimerica), avoids any kind of exploitative raunch. Through no-holds-barred dialogue and carefully filmed, intimate scenes, the show looks at what it’s really like to be a porn “star”. The superb Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake) plays Jolene Dollar, a 33-year-old porn “veteran” and one-woman whirlwind, who tries to take young newcomer Amy (Siena Kelly) under her wing. Meanwhile, at home, Dollar’s own teenage daughter Phoebe (Alex Jarrett) is grappling with the realities of sex with her entitled boyfriend. Jolene is no victim. She lives a nice life, with a decent husband (Joe Dempsie, saddled with an unfortunate goatee), who also happens to film her material, and she takes no shit from the men who make the films – geezer director Dave (Phil Daniels) and flamboyant producer Carroll (Rupert Everett). But when something hideous happens to newbie Amy on set (warning: it’s a lot to deal with), Jolene is reminded that these men are also ruthless in getting what they want. What then occurs in this funny, complex and shocking series, is both surprising and ingenious. And totally unflinching.