Twice more into the breeches...
NOT ONE but two Regency period dramas cantered confidently into the schedules this week for a second series. Bridgerton (Netflix) was slightly less salacious than it has been in the past. I do recall though that the first series was rather restrained for the first two episodes. So it was here too, until Anthony Bridgerton, the new hunk in court – and Regé-jean Page’s replacement – mislaid his trousers again before casually leaving some spare change on the bedside table for his latest courtesan. Such a charmer!
Still, he has a lot on his mind. He’s running the Bridgertons, don’t you know, wondering if he should “lease the fields” this year. Gosh, they’re wrestling with the big questions in Bridgerton. Please talk about fertiliser next week.
The young Viscount is in the market for a bride, so his mother proudly announced to eager debs when they assembled at the first ball of the season.
There was enough tittering and excitement in the room to move Lady Danbury’s extensive foundations.
What it leaves out in intricate plotting, Bridgerton amply makes up for in design and styling. It simply shouts bold – in striking costumes, monster hair pieces, luscious food, grand houses and abundant flowers. It’s a feast of primary colours.
Did it actually look like this? Who cares?
This is a stylish, escapist version of Regency life. If you see a chimney sweep, you’ve accidentally switched on the BBC. The last thing you want to see in Bridgerton is a poor person, and certainly not a beggar. How horrible!
This is aspirational telly from Netflix to match its huge budgets. Anyone can make it here – you just need a dowry of £20,000 a year.
We did meet an honest, non-servant worker who was printing Lady Whistledown’s musings. Thankfully he too was dutiful, even to author Pen – posing as a fake ladies’ maid – and properly knew his place. It gives you a warm feeling.
The colours were a little more muted for Sanditon (Britbox) which returned too, with the cleanest Regency streets ever known. Are the horses under strict instructions – foul ye not! Again, it’s a homely tale of a down-on-his-luck farmer who has sent his two pretty daughters to a veritable toy town on the coast to pick up an unsuspecting husband while staying with beneficent well-to-do folk.
In the last series sparky Charlotte Heywood appeared to have found her beau, only for him to meet his maker in the West Indies during our three-year hiatus. She’s now pining away in Sanditon and ignoring the obvious treats that Kris Marshall’s constructed coastal retreat provides – such as seeing a man emerge virtually topless from the revitalising waters in the opening minutes. Charlotte’s sister is much less circumspect, dropping marriage hints to the visiting army chaps who have set up camp nearby. That’s convenient. There will be cads aplenty. At the end of the episode, she took a serious bump on the head, and was either gazing longingly into a soldier’s eye – or passing from this world.
Sanditon has the comic edge over Bridgerton, plus villains unlike its period rival. There are also inspired performances from Kevin Eldon as a local churchman and Anne Reid as chief investor in Sanditon and its moral heart – “a woman as a spinster is still a pariah”. Quite right. Clean up this new seaside resort. Next thing you know they’ll be selling rock and unsavoury postcards.
If passion is your thing, you will have loved the second episode of Graham Norton’s Holding (ITV, Monday).
Romance appeared from literally nowhere as Conleth Hill’s bumbling Garda PJ advanced on Bríd who had gone AWOL as the prime suspect in the murder of Tommy Burke – or at least who we initially thought it was.
After entertaining her with his unrivalled roadside Benny Hill impression, PJ broke every rule in the criminal code by compromising himself with Bríd, but not before he asked politely from across the bedroom, “May I approach you now?” Next thing they were waking up beside each other and, given what we’ve seen of both so far in the show, she will have wanted a stiff drink, while he could have a murdered a hearty breakfast. Wryly amusing, from start to finish. Finally, The Speed Shop (BBC Two, Sunday) was Top Gear with heart. Titch, with long hair and a beard, runs a motorbike repair shop with two mates, both fellow army veterans. Their first job was for another army pal on a ventilator who can now ride in a sidecar. This was real bloke telly, in which they often say, “Let’s do it!” but with a softer side. I expect many series from these funny, kind-hearted chaps who can fix anything.