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Mad Men

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men
  • Posted at 1:12pm
  • 10 April 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 5 comments

Let's get straight to the point - Jon Hamm is startlingly handsome. As Don Draper in BBC4's Mad Men (Sundays, 10:00pm, with a BBC2 repeat on Tuesdays at 11:20pm) he has the kind of sharply chiselled 1940s matinée idol looks that could stop traffic and possibly alter the sequence of traffic lights just by Hamm crossing the road.

He's one of the many gorgeous things about this brittle, amoral US import centred on advertising execs in 1960s Madison Avenue in New York (the 'mad' in Mad Men). Nothing much actually happens, but oh dear lord what does it matter, when nothing happens in such a sumptuous way.

For Mad Men is the best-looking drama on television. Everything is exquisite - the furniture, the decor and, goodness me, the clothes, from the men's suits to the women's flouncy, petticoated dresses and, heavens to Betsy, their terrifying conical bras, that seem to corral bosoms in a most unnatural fashion to leave them pinched and pointed.

Everything is wreathed in a miasma of cigarette smoke, and everyone drinks - at work, at home, all the time. These are affluent men, served (in every possible sense) for the most part by biddable and compliant women, from the office secretaries who see snagging a rich ad exec as a way out of the boredom of the typing pool, to the wives, stuck in the suburbs, cocooned in money and misery and meekly accepting of their sorely limited domestic horizons.

Each week Mad Men explores an underlying layer of unhappiness, usually with the muted, taciturn, thwarted Draper at its epicentre. Each week another layer is peeled away from that sleek exterior to reveal a man who is in hell. It's wonderful stuff.

After last week's jokey opener, Doctor Who (Saturday 12 April, 6:45pm, BBC1) is pretty good too, and quite dark as the Doc and Donna crash-land in Pompeii the day before Vesuvius erupts. I like the new partnership - Donna is more thoughtful and empathic than any of us had any right to expect after she screeched her way through that painful Runaway Bride Christmas special.

The same night, ITV1 launches the US import Pushing Daisies (9:00pm), starring our own Anna Friel (with a near-perfect American accent, Hugh Laurie would be proud) and the delightful Lee Pace. It's cute bordering on the twee - Pace is a pie-maker (yes, really) who can bring people back from the dead with a single touch. The tension comes when he revives his murdered childhood sweetheart, Chuck (Friel), and the catch is, if he touches her again, she dies. For good. You'll either go "aaah" or you will gag.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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Comments

  • Posted on 13 May 2009
  • at 6:00pm
  • by LauraPledger-RT

BBC4 have confirmed that they have now secured the rights to show series three of Mad Men. No word yet on when it will air, though.

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 8:48pm
  • by Alan

With regards to the comments of GK ... if half the population are women and a proportion of the men are indeed 'homosexual' then it would seem you are at least writing for the majority view.

John Hamm is stunning. But then the series is that and more.

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 5:59pm
  • by andypandy

Oh dear. Are you suggesting you can only be homosexual to appreciate that another man can be 'startlingly handsome'? I am straight and totally comfortable in agreeing that John Hamm is a 'startlingly handsome'man. He joins David Beckham, Cary Grant, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, George Clooney, Sean Connery, Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner etcetera, etcetera...

  • Posted on 30 January 2009
  • at 3:09pm
  • by Edward

This is a brilliant show.Perfect in intent,perfect in execution.John Hamm is without doubt startingly handsome in a grown-up clasic way not a pretty boy ala Brad Pitt. I suspect his understated aloof persona makes him even more attractive to the female sex than the hysterical Jonathon Rhys Myers.

  • Posted on 25 October 2008
  • at 8:19pm
  • by GK

When writing a TV review would you please mind that your readers may not be of the female sex. Were not all 'homosexual' and we dont all find Jonn Hamm startlingley handsome.

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