Manager’s Special

by CT

Having the eponymous owner drunkenly crash his motor car before the credits rolled capped off a fine episode in which ITV1’s Mr Selfridge finally hit its stride. After weeks of setup, plotting and the occasional slice of clunky dialogue, Sunday night’s instalment proved that the drama has enough depth and quality to attract regular custom.

Twisting the established pattern, episode five switched its focus away from the store and publicity stunts, and instead chose to foreground the relationships between the characters themselves. In practice, we were treated to a collection of excellent two-handers shared among the cast, featuring scenes of tension, humour and startling sexual chemistry.

In a masterstroke of casting, Jeremy Piven (and his terrific beard), now more relaxed and less scenery-chewing than before, contrasted brilliantly with Aisling Loftus, making Mr Selfridge’s empathy and outpouring of responsibility towards employee Agnes entirely compelling. His confrontation with taken-for-granted wife Rose (Frances O’Connor) was fiery and passionate, as was her encounter with yearning painter Roddy (Oliver Jackson-Cohen); and Rose’s calm dismantling of Zoë Tapper’s scorned bunny-boiler Ellen Love was a simple, yet effective, exercise in exploiting shifting power dynamics.

Yet alongside the highly charged set-pieces, there was room for subtlety and humour. Henri Leclair’s (Grégory Fitoussi) mentoring of Agnes was tender and romantic, whilst Katherine Kelly’s Lady Mae continued her manoeuvring, her presence peppered with caustic put-downs and blunt observations.

Mr Selfridge may not quite match up to some of the illustrious dramas which have characterized the resurgence in quality television, but it is beginning to justify the razzmatazz which heralded its opening on our screens. Time to throw away that receipt and sign up for a reward card instead.