Dominic West

The Pursuit Of Love is bold, barmy and never boring

Her adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novel features subtitles, freeze-frames and loud blasts of T Rex.

Is the BBC cashing in on Bridgerton's sex appeal?

The Nancy Mitford adaptation was ground zero for that Dominic West-Lily James rumour. The Pursuit Of Love's promises a costume drama full of sex and scandal, but how does it compare to Netflix's hit period drama?

The Pursuit Of Love review

Lily James pouts, struts and grumbles in this post-Bridgerton period bonkbuster.

The Pursuit Of Love, BBC1, review

A gleefully satirical snapshot of growing up and teenage friendship.

The Pursuit Of Love, review

A jolly fun adaptation - just a shame no one told its leading lady.

Pursuit Of Love proves we can't get enough of TV toffs

Emily Mortimer's adaptation manages to feel both modern and faithful to the original.

Brassic, series 2 episode 1 review

This madcap comedy caper is endearing but exhausting.

Joe Gilgun's Shameless successor is still joyriding through rural Lancashire at a breakneck pace. This week's wild ride involves a raid on a rival weed grower's farm and an encounter with Erin's on-the-run brother Ronnie. Plus Dominic West is back as Vinnie's hilariously self-involved GP, Dr Cox.

Brassic is a new comedy from Shameless writer Danny Brocklehurst and actor Joe Gilgun (Woody in This Is England). Vinnie (Gilgun), sharp, witty, bipolar, is first seen wanting to jump off a bridge in the fictional northern town of Hawley, then launching into a Trainspotting-esque spiel ("Fuck the middle class, fuck the Guardian", etc). Vinnie thinks that life is "about having your mates, having a laugh, just finding a way to survive". Duly, this week's opening two episodes involved him, his best mate, Dylan (Damien Molony), and their gang becoming embroiled in hectic, caper-strewn plots encompassing everything from the kidnapping of Shetland ponies via dealing with underground fatbergs to hostile crime bosses.

Deeper themes lurk in Brassic, not least Vinnie's condition (Gilgun has bipolar disorder in real life), and Dylan's partner, young mum, Erin (Michelle Keegan), refusing to go along with the culture of extended adolescence, at one point acidly remarking to Vinnie that there appeared to be "three of them" in her and Dylan's relationship. "If it is, I'm the one getting the least sex", quipped Vinnie. On this showing, Brassic is funny, scratchy, surprising (Dominic West shows up as a useless, self-absorbed doctor), and promises to get darker.