A taste of the high life from the doyenne of dough
What’s this? Mary Berry at Highclere Castle? Could it be the Downton Abbey/ Bake Off crossover that we’ve all been waiting for? Well, not quite, but it’s as close as we’re ever going to get. The first episode of Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets (BBC One), a four-part series that was Berry’s own idea, was something of a treat taking viewers behind the real-life doors and into the grand rooms that hosted Julian Fellowes’s global hit.
It may come as a surprise that this show isn’t a cookery programme per se, but rather a light history series taking in glorious country houses. However, with 60 years’ experience, the doyenne of baking has an acute awareness of her strengths and limitations, so these various aristocratic piles are all explored through the prism of food.
As TV royalty herself, Berry was given a warm welcome on arrival to the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. Sporting a burgundy trilby and her finest cashmere, an ensemble that will no doubt set fashion tongues wagging, she explored the working life of the stately home.
Her genteel amble around the grounds took in dog training with a pack of well-behaved spaniels (followed by raspberry tartlets for tea), game shooting with a group of loyal keepers (then a hearty pheasant stew), and an almighty dinner party. This particular pursuit is one for which Highclere has become famous, having hosted guests including Benjamin Disraeli, Henry James and the future Edward VII – “a very robust man,” said Berry with a cheeky smile as she signalled the size of his belly.
The programme was essentially a compendium of stories about the history of the family estate – one revealed a fascinating link with Tutankhamen – and tasty recipes. And while such a sumptuous lifestyle is far removed from most of our own lives, Berry’s cooking remained familiar and undaunting to make. She used Lady Carnarvon’s homemade elderflower cordial for a gooseberry fool but “of course you could just buy it”, and, take note, pouring cream is preferable if you’re going to whip it up.
Some of the to-camera pieces seemed a little forced – “I feel just like Lady Mary in Downton Abbey,” said Berry as she sat at an opulent dresser to get ready for a lavish party, but when left to riff with the Countess she was a sheer delight. “Non alcoholic or a champagne cocktail?, said Fiona as Berry descended the staircase in a sequinned gown. “Just to keep up my reputation,” she winked as she reached for the latter. No wonder Berry stayed with the BBC – who better to reinforce their mission to inform, educate and entertain. Rachel Ward
Think of Michelle Dockery and it’s hard to picture her as anyone other than Lady Mary. Dockery can take on a wide range of roles, but Downton Abbey’s steely, stand-offish aristocrat has always been there, hovering like a spectre. Godless (Netflix), a languorous and quite brilliant new western produced by Steven Soderbergh, may have changed that. As Alice Fletcher, a two-time widow living with her American Indian son and mother-in-law on a ranch in New Mexico, Dockery goes some way to exorcising Lady Mary, delivering a fine study in no-nonsense doughtiness. Threaten Fletcher’s family and you will suffer for it.
Written and directed by Scott Frank (Logan), this seven-parter has classic films such as Shane and The Searchers coursing through its veins. Set in 1884, it bears all the hallmarks of the genre: sharp shooting, galloping horses, dusty saloon bars. But Godless also has a contemporary feel to it, deftly weaving issues such as gender, race and sexual orientation into a narrative so gripping that I watched the whole lot in one sitting.
At its heart, the series is about Frank Griffin (a terrifying Jeff Daniels) and his notoriously brutal gang of outlaws’ obsessed pursuit of their former ally Roy Goode (Jack O’connell), by whom they were betrayed and who is now hiding out at Fletcher’s property. That Fletcher lives outside a town populated almost entirely by women due to a mining accident that killed nearly all of the local men adds considerable intrigue – you just know these women will be dragged into a mass showdown with Griffin’s boys.
“This here is the paradise of the locust, the lizard, the snake,” says Griffin at one point. “It’s the land of the blade and the rifle. It’s godless country.” No Netflix drama has been this lyrical and yet crisply understated: expect it to triumph at next year’s Emmys. Patrick Smith
Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets ★★★★
Godless ★★★★★