5 Reasons Why You Should Watch The Paradise

Name a lavish costume drama about a charismatic chap who sets up a department store... Nope, not Mr Selfridge, we're talking about John Moray and The Paradise.

1. It’s got a great female lead

BBC 2012

Never mind the actual department store for a second, because The Paradise is really about the journey of one young, rule-breaking woman. Say hello to Denise Lovett, the Scottish lass who was supposed to follow Victorian convention by getting hitched to the pleasant lad down the road and becoming a good housewife. Instead, she’s rejected an offer of marriage and high-tailed it down to England to carve out her own life in the bustle of the big city.

Things don’t go well: she was set to work at her uncle’s little shop, but he hasn’t got the money to hire her. Not to be disheartened, she applies for a job at The Paradise, and so it’s her sheer energy and ambition that set the wheels of the saga in motion. She’s awesome, and you’re going to root for her through thick and thin, especially as she refuses to know her place and starts to influence how this huge store does business.

2. It’s got a love triangle (sort of)

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Admit it, everyone loves a good love triangle. The dagger-looks, the delicious deceit, the sudden switching in affections that drives the other points of the triangle absolutely mad with bitter jealousy and lip-biting lust. It’s great.

Anyway, The Paradise goes one better than a love triangle, by giving us a love square instead.

Shop owner John Moray gets rather taken with the dynamic and beautiful Denise Lovett, which is a bit of a no-no because he’s betrothed to local moneybags Katherine Glendenning, whose posh father is financing The Paradise. On top of that, Moray has previous with a salesgirl called Clara, who doesn’t take kindly to Denise suddenly catching her ex-beau’s eye. So yes: a love square. Who will you root for? (Clue: it won’t be anyone not called Denise.)

3. It’s bang up to date

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The Paradise is set even further back in time than Mr Selfridge, so you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s cozily embedded in its own era with very little to say about 21st century life (except to remind us that these days we all dress like slobs).

But you’d be wrong there, because The Paradise is rivetingly relevant in its depiction of the changing face of retail, and the pressure to sell-sell-sell at all costs. All today’s talk about how shopping centres, supermarkets and online retailers are putting independent shops out of business and killing the high street? That’s exactly what The Paradise is about, with Moray’s store seducing vast swathes of society and putting the squeeze on family-run shops in the process. Put Amazon in a waistcoat and you’ve got The Paradise in a nutshell.

4. It’s got great stars

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One of the big draws of The Paradise is the presence of Corrie’s Sarah Lancashire cast brilliantly against type as Miss Audrey – the queen bee of the ladieswear department. Lancashire utterly owns the role, bringing out both the comedy snobbery of the role as well as the hinted-at sadness behind the spiky façade. Formidable yet vulnerable, in a Joan-from-Mad-Men kind of way, she’s one of the absolute best things about the show.

Plus, you’ve got other veteran stars popping up as well. One of them is Ben Daniels, who’s generally seen playing suavely heroic types, but turns up in The Paradise as a hostile ex-military chap who’s seriously got it in for John Moray. Speaking of which, if you think you recognize Mr Moray, it may be because actor Emun Elliott is one of the stars of a certain little fantasy romp called Game of Thrones, and he’ll undoubtedly rise to A-list status in coming years. Just saying.

5. It’s got proper pedigree

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There are bound to be some scoffing, snooty types out there who’ll assume The Paradise is just a high end, Taste the Difference variation on a soap opera. Well, not quite. The Paradise wasn’t the brainchild of some cynical TV exec trying to dream up the next big thing. It’s actually based on a classic novel by Emile Zola, one of the most celebrated French writers of all time.

The novel itself is called Au Bonheur des Dames, which translates as The Ladies’ Delight, which admittedly does sound suspiciously like some kind of dodgy 50 Shades knock-off, so it’s probably a good thing they decided to call this version The Paradise instead.

So there you have it: a thrilling saga of a woman’s rise in Victorian society, featuring juicy confrontations and secret agendas, and starring top British talent, and based on a story written by a genius.

Watch the first episode on Sunday 25 January at 5.40pm on Drama, and prepare to get hooked.