Archie

After trying and giving up on a series of overhyped, unconvincing TV dramas it was a real pleasure to sink into binge-watching Archie (ITVx), four one-hour episodes on the trot. The basic outline is weird enough - the real-life story of Archie Leach, miserable Bristol boy transformed by moving to America and through considerable effort turning himself into international film star Cary Grant.

That’s the surface triumph, but underneath that is the dark history of failed marriages, his concern to protect himself and to dominate the women he lived with, a core of self-doubt and shame of which he was increasingly conscious as his fame and power grew. Plus the intense but twisted relationship with his mother, sectioned in a hospital but not dead - although that was what his father had told him.

But the core of this drama is based on his relationship with Dyan Cannon, who looks like the classic bimbo stereotype, but it’s not her fault she’s attractive and blonde. If this film is anything to go by, she’s also thoughtful, sensitive and mature, recognising Grant’s need for a relationship with their daughter, which turns out to be his route to redemption. So, happy ending of a kind, but it’s a tough, rocky road getting there, and the script and the performances don’t cut corners or settle for easy answers. A rare, intelligent treat - TV drama for grown-ups.