It rated #23 of the borg Top 40 Best TV series of the last decade. ITV and PBS’s Mr. Selfridge is now on PBS Drama on Prime Video, a new live Prime Video channel. So why watch it now? Because you love holiday shopping, especially the nostalgia of the vintage holiday shopping experience, and the ambience is great fun. Back in 2013 we suggested the world of the series seemed like that of the Macy’s of Miracle on 34th Street–only from decades earlier. Haven’t you ever wished you could step inside that holiday classic (the original, of course!) and walk around? This is as close as you’ll get–with soaring music, classy sets, costumes, period hairdos, and snappy dialogue, it envelopes you as it captures an era of British history.
Infused with real-world figures, the expertly crafted amalgam of worlds stars the singular Jeremy Piven as Harry Gordon Selfridge, American proprietor of London department store Selfridge & Co. (which still exists) and features a cast of England’s top actors, who would rise to star in the most popular British TV and films from Sherlock to Dune: Prophecy, from Case Histories to Humans, to the Doctor Who spin-off Class, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, and A Discovery of Witches, to All Creatures Great and Small, Bridgerton, and movies like No Time to Die, The King’s Man, and Wicked, as well as the Harry Potter and Star Wars movies. The swath of genre actors is like those big Brit casts of The Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey.
This is not your typical British series, delivering only three to six episodes per season. This is forty hours over four seasons of great action and drama. And you could learn a lot about how the profession of business and commerce worked then (and oddly enough runs similarly today). If the romance of Bridgerton isn’t your thing and the grim world of the downstairs characters on Downton Abbey leaves you needing more, this is for you.
Piven’s Selfridge is completely in his element as a forward-thinking businessman with ideas to spare and never enough money to accomplish everything he wants to do. The vehicle for his passion is the department store, and the series is a chronicle of how the department store we run to at the last minute became all it is today. Ever wonder why the perfume counter is at the front of Macy’s and JC Penney’s? Why make-up is sold with perfume but gloves with hats and belts? Things that now seem trivial once had real meaning.
As Mr. Selfridge, Piven is perfect as a P.T. Barnum-inspired business genius. His Mr. Selfridge possesses all the traits of a past or current entrepreneur, listening to those around him, moving with the times, pushing boundaries and changing the status quo at its core. He is flamboyant, arrogant, confident, persuasive, charismatic, and pragmatic. It’s difficult to believe anyone could be as real as Piven’s portrayal, yet no doubt the J.P. Morgans and other industrialists of the first part of the 20th century possessed the same kind of mettle in order to build the U.S. and the U.K. into what they are today. Let’s face it, the worst of these people have become and continue to be a problem for society more than a centiry later.
The supporting cast in Mr. Selfridge is truly compelling. Aisling Loftus (A Discovery of Witches, Case Histories) plays a shop girl who loses her job by way of Selfridge’s antics, and her determined nature allows her to rise in the ranks of Selfridge’s store. Ron Cook (Horatio Hornblower, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz) plays Mr. Crabb, Selfridge’s stilted accountant. French actor Grégory Fitoussi (Baron de Cobray in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is brilliant as a high-maintenence window decorator. Frances O’Connor (Timeline, A.I., Artificial Intelligence) shines as Selfridge’s wife. Zoe Tapper (Zen, Grace) portrays Ellen Love and Katherine Kelly (Doctor Who’s spin-off Class) is Lady Mae–two highly influential figures (if not in reality then as character creations for the script) in the Selfridge story (Class co-star Greg Austin is here, too). Sherlock and Case Histories’ Amanda Abbington is riveting, plus All Creatures Great and Small stars Samuel West and Anna Madeley have key roles in Selfridge’s life and store.
It doesn’t end there. There’s Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo. Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Daisy Ridley. Trystan Gravelle (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, A Discovery of Witches) is a troubled young restaurateur. Polly Walker (Patriot Games, Enchanted April, Bridgerton) is a key player in later episodes. Tom Goodman-Hill (Humans, The Imitation Game) plays another loathsome type. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and sci-fi classic Outland’s Kika Markham plays Selfridge’s mother. That’s Ella Enchanted’s Aidan McArdle and the Harry Potter films’ own Madame Hooch, Zoë Wanamaker, as a princess. And more from Doctor Who–keep an eye open for Sacha Dhawan. It’s also a good option for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Of course Piven never disappoints, and shines in the varied roles he takes. Early in his career that meant a variety of smarmy types, but he’s grown on us, and his trying-too-hard characters often end up endearing instead of loathed. Piven snuck up on us bit by bit in small roles in Lucas and a pile of John Cusack films: Bob Roberts, Elvis Stories, Floundering, One Crazy Summer, Say Anything…, The Grifters, Grosse Pointe Blank, Serendipity, and Runaway Jury. But it wasn’t until Judgment Night, where Piven’s cocky Ray Cochran tries to use his negotiation skill to save (unsuccessfully) a group of friends who take a wrong turn, that viewers really took note of this actor. Then the Drake University-trained actor starred in PCU, and got to do his own Animal House film with a twist on Tim Matheson’s Eric Stratton–a classic cult favorite today.
From there Piven became a familiar face if not household name in several TV appearances, featured in Coach, Grace Under Pressure, and The Drew Carey Show, with expanded roles on The Larry Sanders Show, Ellen, Will and Grace, and the reboot of The Twilight Zone. He starred as Cupid in the short-lived series of the same name opposite Paula Marshall, one of his best performances to date. He even got to try on his salesman role as an over-the-top Versace seller in Rush Hour 2. He continues to appear on TV and in movies and is likely now best known for starring role as the uber-agent of Entourage, and he received acclaim for his movie The Performance last year.
PBS Drama on Prime Video is a new “FAST channel”–Free Ad-supported Streaming TV, available for a limited time, part of a partnerhsip of Amazon and PBS. Catch the series while you can!
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
