f you’re obsessed with Downton, then you’ll no doubt have been consumed by the BBC’s rival drama, The Paradise, but if you missed the sumptuous Victorian series, which ended last month, then why not catch up with it on DVD over the festive period.
DVD
The Paradise
Cert. PG
If you’re obsessed with Downton, then you’ll no doubt have been consumed by the BBC’s rival drama, The Paradise, but if you missed the sumptuous Victorian series, which ended last month, then why not catch up with it on DVD over the festive period.
Tenacious shop girl, Denise, left her uncle’s failing business to serve in London’s first department store where she quickly impresses the handsome owner, Moray, with her forward-thinking sales ideas.
These ideas however, see her fall out of favour with her colleagues and ladies-wear mistress, Miss Audrey, played to surprisingly stoic perfection by Coronation Street alumni, Sarah Lancashire (Curley’s wife).
The well-heeled Katharine Glendenning is a fantastically manipulative villain, as is her father, who’s back-handed business tactics see Moray bound to them in matrimonial and monetary terms.
Secrets, betrayal, unexplained deaths, disappearances and multiple misguided affections threaten to throw Moray’s vision and true love off-course.
TV
Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience: Drag Artist
Thursday 13th December, 10pm
BBC Two
Sour-faced TV panel show guest and stand-up comedian, Rhod Gilbert, has turned his acerbic-witted hand to a range of careers in his new series, Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience, and this week’s is a good’un, with Rhod diving jock-strapped, wigged and sequined into the world of drag artistry.
Internationally famous female impersonator, Ceri Dupree, mentors Rhod while he finds his stilettoed feet as his alter-ego, Rachel, but does the burly Welshman have the social confidence to perform a Shirley Bassey tribute routine at a rural working-men’s club?
Catch Rhod’s other forays into the workplace on i-player - he’s already had a crack at primary school teaching and zoo keeping, both with pleasantly enlightening outcomes.
CD
Michael Buble
Christmas
Never have the sexes been more divided than when declaring their love or loathing for Michael Buble and his million mega-watt smile.
And the Canadian King of swing deserves a medal in Christmas cashing-in, as this album is in fact a re-release, with just three new songs, well, Christmassy covers, added since it first swooned into our lives around this time last year.
In addition to the sixteen festive four-minute musical feasts featured on the album’s original track list, Buble has found it in his heart to croon through three extra holiday favourites, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman and Silver Bells.
Inoffensively light and jazzy in a warm, middle-of-the-road kind of way, and far less shrill than Katherine Jenkins’ Xmas offering, but not as kooky as Rod Stewart’s genius take on the holiday album, Merry Christmas, Baby.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here