Meet the Russians

Episode two
If you’re a surviving member of the British Establishment, hold on to your monocle lest it plop into your champagne flute. Rich Russians are not just taking over Mayfair, they’re taking over from ‘Made in Chelsea’, too. It’s only two episodes in, but this highly tongue-in-cheek documentary following the lives of London’s oligarch byproducts really packs in the inadvertent laughs. If you find Caggie et al grating and self-obsessed, this superbly tacky and over-the-top collection of subjects is a stiff and refreshing tonic.

Naturally, outrageous displays of extravagance are to be expected – one couple (she’s an aspiring pop star, he’s a billionaire) take a private jet to Birmingham just to eat at their favourite curry house. But what’s unexpected – and brilliant – about ‘Meet the Russians’ are the surreal heights it reaches. One anecdote ends with the words ‘And then I had to bury the squirrel and trash the doll’. No scripted-reality show could ever come up with gold like that, surely?