Bridgerton star reveals he tried to take prop from the set
Was there something in the summer air this week? The American streamers were getting a little hot under their starched collars.
Bridgerton (Netflix) found its racy DNA again with characters slipping out of their crinolines, quite unnecessarily.
For some reason, I thought Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlin) would be different from the rest. Alas no.
This pair already had form from part one, enduring what appeared to be a most uncomfortable clinch in Pen’s bumpy carriage.
In part two they then visited Colin’s equivalent of a Regency starter home where he imagined they might live after marriage.
Most of the furniture was covered by dust sheets, but hygiene was far from their thinking.
After he whispered a few commanding phrases from his much-anticipated Paris travelogue – publisher tbc -- the couple struggled to contain themselves on a well-placed chaise longue.
A flustered Colin barely managed to drape himself in a “modesty curtain”.
It only needed a valet to pop his head around the door, and it would have been Carry on… Colin.
This show needs an away day in a local monastery.
Meanwhile, Lady Whistledown, the original, may soon be spending more time with her quill than being all-a-quiver.
So another streamer, another suite of sex scenes.
We all know America likes a legal drama, too and Presumed Innocent (Apple +TV) was a quality offering.
Jake Gyllenhaal played a Chicago lawyer in a sweary DA’s office who one day discovers that the colleague he’s been having an affair with has been murdered. Or did he just “discover”? So hangs this suspense thriller, which grabs you from the first scene.
It comes from Scott Turow’s first novel in 1987, which has been updated by David E Kelly (Ally McBeal), and JJ Abrams, whose films have made $4bn. You never know: he might be due a flop, but this isn’t it.
Half-way through the episode we drifted into back story, in which Rusty Savage (Gyllenhaal) – name of the week – didn’t try very hard to not have an affair with his pretty lawyer colleague (Renate Reinsve). Hey, they were difficult work meetings, you know.
Rusty keeps trying to teach his kid a curve ball. It turns out, he’s been throwing a few himself.
Our lawyer finally resorted to a therapist, where he came to the least persuasive explanation, “It wasn’t about the sex…”
I don’t think that will stand up in court.
The only flaw in this classy new show is Rusty’s wife (Ruth Negga) who obviously doesn’t know how to call a cab, or she would have left months ago.
There’s something very Eighties about this show, and is bound to be a hit -- unless everyone has read the book by now.
You’re not going to believe this, but the most compelling show of the week was Scam Interceptors (BBC One Monday).
If you’re a fan of the film The Beekeeper with Jason Statham, this is its TV accompaniment.
In the film Statham torches a call centre of scammers and then beats up any survivors.
While not condoning violence one can understand the sentiment.
In the Bbc version you get Rav Wilding in charge of operations.
Everybody is dressed in dark, forbidding clothing like a fridge theatre performance, but this is serious.
Rav and his friends have also hacked into an old lady’s phone call from a real scammer in India.
When Rav’s team finally get her address, it’s a race to get her to put the phone down.
The punishment? One of the researchers later calls the hacker and asks him, “Do your mum and dad know you’re doing this?”
The hacker puts the phone down.
Eat your heart out Statham.
Finally, is politics entertaining? Increasingly, yes. Who didn’t laugh or at times simply despair during The Battle for Number 10 (Sky News, Wed)?
In this novel format, Starmer and Sunak didn’t actually face each other in the grand surroundings of the Grimsby Town Hall. Here they sat uneasily before their voting public and skilled inquisitor Beth Rigby.
Leaving my sofa at home, I took a ringside seat in the so-called Spin Room to witness this new political bloodsport. It was funny, raw — and unpredictable.
On stage Slugger Rigby was taking lumps out of the political quarry, while journalists broadcasters and political hangers-on watched the live transmission on a huge screen, “oohing” or “ahhing”, at every punch landed or parried.
When the questions stopped the “spin” took over. Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth darted into the room looking very pleased with himself, “They should have thrown in the towel for Sunak,” he said, optimistically. Later, the Tories’ James Cleverly, not so chipper, led a throng of advisers and security into the room, muttering about Labour putting “£4,800 a year on to your mortgage”. Figures, figures…
Who won? Starmer struggled to deal with a charge of being “political robot”, while Sunak said he wasn’t giving up though looking ill-at-ease.
Give the Spin Room a full series.
STEPHENSON'S ROCKET
Now there I was thinking it would be nice to watch a DC superhero on ITVX this week. And just like lightning, there he was. It was The Flash (ITVX, Wed).
Only thing was, he was everywhere else including on Sky and on Prime Video. Then I recalled watching him on Sky when it first came out. He was so impressive at reading tyre prints off a pavement as a “police scientist”.
And he was called Barry? Really? He’s a superhero. I’m calling these “silent repeats”.
They creep on you before you go, “I’ve seen this rubbish before…”
