Showtrial: BBC’S ultra-stylish new guilty pleasure
It’s a brave director who allows one of her leads to wear outrageously distracting lime green acrylic nails in a Serious Murder Drama. Then again, she also permits her other lead, a Bristol-based solicitor, played by the can’t-take-your-eyes-offher elegant Tracy Ifeachor, to wear some of the best professional-executive-officewear seen on TV in ages. Zara Hayes evidently has faith in her cast and script not to be upstaged by their outfits.
Frankly, there are times when it’s a close run thing. In the end though, it’s the plot of
Showtrial, BBC One’s new Sunday night thriller (all episodes are available on iplayer) that wins out, partly because, what with their owner being held in police custody, the nails gradually peel off.
Showtrial is – don’t judge me – my new guilty pleasure. Pleasure seems like the wrong word for a drama with such a dark act at its centre. That’s why it comes with guilt. Showtrial is highly addictive for some of the same reasons that The Split, another BBC potboiler about glamorous female lawyers, is. You’re drawn in by the characters but you don’t really buy the premise.
Perhaps it’s the terrific, slick costumes and the general gloss (even the courtroom looks like an annexe of Soho House) that make it all seem slightly cartoon-like. Or is it the weedy, dweeby, generally ghastly men?
At any rate there’s plenty of scope for noble, self-made Ifeachor’s solicitor and the almost implausibly unlikeable rich girl she finds herself having to defend, to have fun on screen.
Unlikable rich girl stands accused of the murder of a fellow student. Given that her billionaire father likes knocking down buildings “with orphans still in them”, and his daughter recounts this as an amusing anecdote, it seems unlikely the jury will warm to her.
Stylishly played by the half-belgian actress Céline Buckens (you can tell she’s from the other side of the Channel by the eyeliner and her dedication to shoulder-robing, even during police interrogation), rich girl Talitha is so awful she’s never going to get a fair trial. Hence the series’ title. Hence Ifeachor to the rescue.
Vaguely inspired perhaps by the Amanda Knox story, Showtrial is about as subtle as a tequila sunrise. What’s not to enjoy? And my goodness the costuming, by Nigel Egerton who also worked on Baptiste, is ballsy.
Forget sad old Shiv’s unflattering beige trouser suits in Succession. Ifeachor wears cobalt blue cardigans over her elegant plum sleeveless fitted dresses (and unlike Shiv’s they do actually fit her).
Instead of the normal Tv-lawyer bland fodder, Ifeachor shimmers in sleek, well-tailored separates in emerald green, damson and primrose yellow. She has the colour sense of the Queen and the fashion instincts of Gywneth Paltrow in A Perfect Murder (one of Paltrow’s best-dressed contemporary fashion films, apart from the kooky, iconic Royal Tenenbaums).
She wears fluid shirt dresses, bright trouser suits, and slim black leather skirts or leggings with emerald green V-neck jumpers and knitted damson polo shirts.
It’s a masterclass in how to rule the boardroom. She’s not meant to look rich (it’s still relatively early in her career and besides, in this drama, the rich are contemptible) but rather to come across as someone who understands the value of looking her best.
She probably buys on The Outnet and gets her high street bargains altered to fit her immaculately. She does it so well, she almost makes it look effortless.