Sparks flew in this glossy tale of Hollywood misogyny
‘You know how much power women had back then? Exactly as much as we got now: zippo.” So said world-weary actress Joan Blondell (Kathy Bates) in Feud: Bette and Joan (BBC Two, Saturday). After a year in which Hollywood’s gender inequality has been grimly exposed, this period drama was uncannily timely.
This US series chronicled the notorious rivalry between screen queens Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. We met the pair in 1962, as Crawford (Jessica Lange) realised that juicy roles weren’t being written for women her age. As her pal Blondell sighed: “The only women getting hired had big chests and small brains.” I fear things haven’t improved 55 years on.
Chancing upon Henry Farrell’s suspense novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Crawford was sure she’d found the perfect part and convinced director Robert Aldrich (Brit actor Alfred Molina, on brilliant, affecting form) to shoot a film adaptation. To secure studio backing, though, Crawford needed the star power of her bitter foe Davis (Susan Sarandon).
This eight-parter is airing in double bills, and the second episode saw shooting get under way on Baby Jane. While their egos clashed, both stars could at least agree that the pretty young actress cast as their neighbour simply had to go, so teamed up “like the Hitler/stalin pact”. Meanwhile, manipulative studio boss Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) encouraged Aldrich to stoke the flames of conflict between his leading ladies to garner publicity.
Feud is the creation of screenwriter Ryan Murphy, who made last year’s Bafta-winning hit The People vs OJ Simpson. This new fact-based tale was similarly soapy but irresistibly entertaining. It recalled Mad Men with its hard-drinking, chain-smoking, Saul Bass-style credits and handsome production design, which vividly recreated the Sixties era.
As he does in his other current franchise, American Horror Story, Murphy refreshingly makes a point of giving screen-time to mature actresses. As well as towering turns from Lange and Sarandon, a cracking supporting cast boasted Bates, Catherine Zeta Jones, Judy Davis and comedian Jackie Hoffman as the scene-stealing Mamacita, Crawford’s lugubrious housekeeper.
Sparks flew. Delicious one-liners were traded. Ageism, sexism and misogyny were explored. This was Feud for thought.
Why does The Apprentice (BBC One, Sunday) always start with a 6am phone call and an ominous warning that cars will arrive to pick up the candidates in 20 minutes? I realise it adds a televisual frisson of urgency, but if someone kept dragging me to 6.20am meetings at insultingly short notice, I’d soon be the one firing them. Let that be a warning, Sir Alanstrad of Sugarshire.
Even in this final, that was the drill. Over 11 weeks of boardroom backstabbing and bickering in people carriers, 18 hopefuls had been whittled down to two: slick IT recruiter James White and ambitious confectioner Sarah Lynn. Now they had three days to bring their business plans to life and prove they had potential to make big bucks for the belligerent boss.
Hand-picked teams of fired candidates returned to help. Or, in the cases of Stroppy Siobhan and Scary Liz, hinder. They created brands and ad campaigns, before pitching to an amphitheatre full of experts in London’s City Hall. With its long walkway to the stage, it was like heading to the gallows but having to do a Powerpoint presentation before getting decapitated.
Quiff-on-legs James launched an IT recruitment firm called First Tier Talent. After a sleepless night, Sarah changed the name of her gifting service from the tongue-twisting Sarah’s Chic Sweets to the snappier Sweeteze. In a clumsily chauvinistic touch, James hosted his meetings in a pub, while Sarah held hers in the kitchen.
Sugar seemed genuinely torn. “They’re both investible,” counselled Littner. “Go with your gut.” His gut couldn’t decide either so, for the first time in 13 series, there were two winners. James and Sarah both got a £250K investment, which was cockle-warmingly generous but also anti-climactic.
The Apprentice remains a precisiontooled production: a fiendishly compelling format, efficiently executed. However, you can’t help feeling that its best days are behind it; that its most memorable candidates and moments are fast-receding into the distance. As the climactic voiceover said: “Lord Sugar’s search for a business partner… is over.” In more ways than one, perhaps.
Feud: Bette and Joan ★★★★ The Apprentice ★★★