For a wafty sounding period drama about haute couture, The New Look (AppleTV+) could have gone either way, with glamour or grit. In the end, it was a little of both, in the unlikely combination of Nazis and fashion designers.
It told the story of French icons Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) and Christian Dior (Ben Mendelshon) as they lived — and “survived” — the Nazi occupation in Paris.
Neither Dior nor Chanel come out very well from this first episode.
I shall be returning all my outfits in protest!
The hallmarks of Apple TV were here: big budgets, great casting, along with immaculate period detail. But for a gripping story, The New Look didn’t stack up well initially when compared to other recent Apple dramas such as the Masters of the Air.
While the series sparkled with the glitz of a catwalk, the writer Tod Kessler left the real drama until the final five minutes of the episode. Many will have turned off, disappointed that it was no more enticing than an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee.
In the drama, Coco Chanel used the Nazis’ Aryan laws to claw back control of the lucrative Chanel No. 5 perfume brand from its Jewish owners who had fled Paris.
Watching her (Binoche) negotiate this at a Paris ball with a senior Nazi, who fancied her, was a grim watch. The whiff of scandal remains to this day.
Meanwhile, Dior was designing outfits for the Nazi wives and girlfriends, in the only case of the devil wears Dior.
There was a lighter aspect to all this haute couture yarn — with echoes of sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo. It was John Malkovich’s unintentional reprise of French villain Pascal Sauvage from Johnny English when he turned out as the vacillating Lucien Lelong, a couturier who used Dior’s designs. It was Malkovich in overdrive.
The tone in episodes two and three darkened considerably as two talented fashion designers floundered in a world of treachery. Stick with it.
If you were searching for the best episode of drama last week it was on One Day (Netflix), episode nine to be precise. In this perfectly told, almost self-contained mini-drama, hapless Dex (Leo Woodall) tries to impress his girlfriend Sylvie (Eleanor Tomlinson) by withstanding a weekend at her parents. We think we’ve all been through this type of ordeal until you’ve watched this.
Not only was he grilled by her parents, Lionel (Toby Stephens) and Helen Cope (Joely Richardson) but he also dodged the barbs from the family’s twins. This was only a warm up however, as Dex, after hearing he was dumped from his TV show, was forced to play a game of, “Are you there, Moriarty?” in which two people square up to each other blind-folded, but only one wields a rolled-up newspaper.
Toby Stephens was superb as the menacing father who is convinced his daughter is dating a fraud. At one point he asks what Dex’s mother did. Dex answers that she was in antiques. “So she had a shop?” barks Linda Cope. How they all laughed.
One Day, with its extra-special guest stars, is fast becoming the drama of the year.
Slightly more prosaic, but no less intense was the endless question in this season’s Call The Midwife (BBC One, Sunday): when would Matthew (Olly Rix) fess up to Trixie (Helen George) that he was on queer street. No, not that. That he was broke.
Over previous episodes we’ve watched Matthew’s torment.
We even saw him conduct a share deal over a phone by the side of an A-road on his way to the seaside. Trixie though has ploughed along obliviously, putting a new Sunbeam car on order. Oh dear.
Matt finally confessed that he’d been sacked by the board, and his salary was cancelled. He told Trixie a home truth along the way: “Money has paved the way for your happiness.”
She won’t be alone there. She countered: “At least you signed over the deeds to Nonnatus House. Oh no, he hasn’t! In the next series, these hard working nurses may well be living under the arches in cupboard boxes, while Sister Monica Jones (Judy Parfitt) declares, “Our suffering is now real. We can now look Poplar in the eye.”
Bring The Drama (BBC two, wed) was a new reality show to find overlooked actors.
Apparently they’re everywhere. Really?
The show was presented by the excellent Bill Bailey, now a global star, who must have promised to do this before he won Strictly. His role is to offer support.
It definitely needs something to brighten up the show, which kicked off with a desperate EastEnders scene, in which Phil Mitchell struggles to express emotion. Did we really need to go through that again?
STEPHENSON’S ROCKET
Gushing George Clarke could barely control himself on his bizarre jolly in the US.
In George Clarke’s Adventures in Americana (C4, Mon), the man was positively beside himself with glee as he rode a bike past some neon signs in seaside Wildwood, declaring it a great example of Americana.
Do we care? The Americans don’t.
Why doesn’t he go to Blackpool or Cleethorpes? If he’s going to gush like a child in a sweet shop, he might be lucky enough to turn on the lights in Blackpool.
And when is a diner great architecture? Waffles and pancakes, yes. Fancy strip lighting, no.
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