Hard

Series one, episode five
The lively promise of this French comedy-drama about Sophie, a slightly snooty housewife (think Kristin Scott Thomas’s less viperish sister) who inherits her late husband’s smut empire, has been largely wasted as this six-part series has progressed. What started out as a kooky Gallic trip through the brittle two-way looking-glass that separates suburbia from sleaze has settled into tittersome X-rated ‘Shirley Valentine’ knock-off for Left Bank existentialists. And les giggles have steadily dried up too.

This closing chapter sees Sophie edging from porn queen to pimp as she whores out her stable of male wang-wranglers to the mademoiselles of Paris while attempting to reconcile her business life with her personal affairs (again). Still, it’s not often you get to see a male porn star dressed in Sergeant Pepper gear introduce himself with the line, ‘Want to fuck? I am Paul McCartney is my name.’ Worth it for that alone? Non.