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The Paradise is a fictional version of Britain's first ever department store. The place feels like a cross between Liberty and Selfridges, except that it's up north – just outside Sunderland by the sound of it, and all of the staff get to live upstairs above the shop – a staff perk that workers at M&S are very unlikely to ever enjoy.
On the opposite side of a distinctly cardboard-looking Victorian Street, peopled with uncomfortable-looking extras, is Edmund Lovett's sweet little drapery shop – clearly in urgent need of a paint job, having recently been so meticulously distressed by a stand-by chippy. Not surprisingly, poor Edmund is being put out of business by The Paradise, and he's far from happy about it.
When Edmund's niece Denise (Joanna Vanderham) arrives on the scene she immediately faces us with a major challenge – that of trying to work out where exactly she is from. She begins with an Irish accent, quickly switches to Scottish in the next speech, then for a while settles on good old-fashioned English R.P. Then she veers back into Irish for a while, finally settling, via a brief stab at West Country, on Scottish. And she achieves all of this linguistic wizardry while pouting at the camera and glancing seductively over one shoulder.
The Paradise is owned by the smooth skinned, deeply sexy John Moray (played by Emun Elliott). This character, while looking beautiful and managing to successfully wrangle a single accent, insists, however, on playing every single line with exactly the same intonation, as if having a stab at the script for the first time at a table read.
Much to the horror of her uncle, Moray offers Denise a job, and soon her heaving breast becomes very much a part of the furniture in ladieswear & haberdashery on the first floor. My favourite scene was when Moray stroked Denise's face and told her to have just one hair askew, as nothing in life has any business being perfect. This sensual piece of dialogue has been a favourite of mine ever since I heard it spoken almost word for word the first time, by Peter O'Toole in James Goldman's masterpiece The Lion in Winter.
Enter rich and evil pantomime villain Lord Glendenning (deliciously overplayed by Patrick Malahide). As the audience hiss and boo he places his mouth close to Moray's ear and whispers, "If you break her heart, I shall make it my business
to ruin you!" It is probably also worth mentioning craggy skinned Jonas Franks (played by David Hayman) who appears to be in the series for no reason other than to slowly peer around doors. His is a face I'm sure I will see in my nightmares for many weeks to come. Hopefully his character will be fleshed out in future episodes.
This series has the same chief writer as Lark Rise to Candleford, Bill Gallagher. Like millions of others I am a fan of Lark Rise, which appears, at first sight, to be infinitely better constructed, better written, better acted and better directed.
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score 5/10
mail-479-241123 28 September 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2680226/ |
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28-1-2021 22:07:06