Aidan Smith on TV: Supersex, The Gentlemen, Mary & George and The Push: Murder on the Cliff

By Aidan Smith
Published 8th Mar 2024, 04:45 BST
Updated 9th Mar 2024, 10:46 BST
From a drug dealing toff to romps in the court of James I, elder brothers are pushed aside in three wildly different shows

Supersex

Netflix

*

Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine in Mary & George. Picture: ©Sky UKJulianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine in Mary & George. Picture: ©Sky UK
Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine in Mary & George. Picture: ©Sky UK

The Gentlemen

Netflix

**

Mary & George

Fawziyah Javed whose murder is the subject of The Push: Murder on the CliffFawziyah Javed whose murder is the subject of The Push: Murder on the Cliff
Fawziyah Javed whose murder is the subject of The Push: Murder on the Cliff

Sky Atlantic

***

The Push: Murder on the Cliff

Channel 4

****

I guess “spares” have a lot of spare time on their hands. Well, if their poster boy, Prince Harry, is at a loose end right now he might be interested in a cluster of new dramas. In all three, you see, the second son also rises.

It’s remarkable sometimes how TV shows from the same week seem to have been eavesdropping on each other. In two, patriarchs are laid to rest, families mourn at gravesides, the wills are read and - shockaroonie - wee brothers nip ahead of the first-borns.

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In the third, the younger boy suffers playground cruelty. “Stretch it! Stretch it!” cry his tormentors. Elder sibling Tomasso, examining the damage, senses a great opportunity. “This is huge!” he shrieks. “And now you, Rocco my brother, you’ve got the biggest d*** in the world. Hold your head up proudly!”

This is Supersex (Netflix), a biopic of Italian stallion Rocco Siffredi, one of the world’s most prolific, and fastest-recovering, adult movie star with 1,300 X-rated flicks to his name. I know that Harry is always looking for new money-making opportunities but perhaps this would be, er, a stretch for him. And I’m not sure he’ll find much comfort in Mary & George or The Gentlemen either.

The latter, also on Netflix, is Guy Ritchie’s reworking of his 2019 film of the same name, still with poshos rubbing up against right bad yins as the action shifts from very big house in the country to seedy boxing gym and back again. Who remembers the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band? Not many now, but their number “Big Shot” had the line “I’m a G-man … girls, guns, guts”. That’s Ritchie, who finds another role for Vinnie Jones, this time as a camp florist. No, I’m kidding.

The star is Theo James as Eddie who avers: “Freddy’s the heir and I’m the spare.” Except the brothers’ old man (Edward Fox), even though he’s delirious on his deathbed and dribbling about some fellow having “killed 15 Frenchmen before lunch”, clearly doesn’t trust Freddy (Daniel Ings) with the estate. “You f****r!” the latter roars at Eddie, turning as puce as his corduroys. “You’ve leapfrogged ov