Tipping the Velvet: Episode 2

I watched the preview tape of this show , featuring some of our finest young actresses engaging in distinctly erotic scenes, safe in the knowledge that should my girlfriend walk in, I could safely say that I was watching it for the article. (This article!)

Screenwriter Andrew Davies is said to have described the show as “filthy???. If that it is the case he is doing himself a disservice. Some of the most respected names in TV drama are involved in this, exec-produced by Sally Head and directed by Geoffrey Sax, which is a fine pedigree for any show.

This is a bodice ripper with a difference, a sort of Catherine Cookson style drama for the Television X generation. Well that’s probably putting it a bit strong but this is racy stuff all right.

In this second episode, our heroine, Nan (Rachael Stirling) is forced to leave the Music Hall life when her lover Kitty (Keeley Hawes) announces she is to marry Duggie out of Coronation Street.

A distraught Nan finds herself alone in London and in need of a form of income. Fearing for her safety as a woman alone on the streets, she falls back on her old habit of male impersonation, whereupon she is accosted by a randy old duffer seeking “relief??? for a couple of sovereigns and she soon embarks on a new career in back alleys, giving a whole new meaning to living hand to mouth.

The self-loathing brought on by this drives her away from a possible relationship with the unsullied Florence (Jodhi May) and one particularly unsavoury alleyway incident leads her into the clutches of dominatrix Diana Wetherby (Anna Chancellor).

If your conservative maiden aunt wasn’t shocked by the alley scenes, keep the smelling salts handy for the scenes to come as Nan becomes a willing sex slave of the decadent Diana, finds herself put on display in tableaux for the society lesbians of London and appears in a variety of strap-ons.

So is this all as sleazy as it seems? Well not really. Given the subject matter it is carried off with some degree of taste, Stirling’s gravel voiced commentary on events being vital in letting us know her state of mind as each new experience unfolds and providing mitigation for the tawdry practices she becomes involved in.

The story is certainly engaging with some bold but believable performances.

However be warned, this subject matter won’t suit everyone. Mary Whitehouse won’t be turning in her grave.

She’ll be spinning.

Rating 8 out of 10

Tipping the Velvet : Episode 2 airs on BBC Two on Wednesday 16th October at 9.00pm