Is there a surer sign that a middle-aged man has morphed into a fogey than the sight of him shouting at the television? Sunday evening is when my inner Victor Meldrew tends to be unleashed. Period costume drama is the proximate cause. The BBC usually, but not always, the culprit.
These shows – Poldark, Call the Midwife, Lark Rise to Candleford – promise a gentle drawing down of the weekend, a televisual duvet in which to wrap ourselves and banish thoughts of Monday morning.
The dramatisation of Len Deighton’s counterfactual novel SS-GB is the latest series to render me choleric. That’s in spite of the fact that there’s much to admire. Leading man Sam Riley is terrific as Inspector Archer, a wartime British detective trying not to be a collaborator. The plot, based on the idea that Germany had won the Battle of Britain, makes us wonder what we would have done. As a study in temptation, it is Lenten fare.
