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The Halcyon. 2016. ITV S01e01. Could this be the new Downton?
Is The Halcyon the new Downton Abbey?
Aristocrats, maids, intrigue, feuds and a nation on the brink of change – welcome to ITV's new drama
Welcome to The Halcyon, an opulent art deco temple to high living smack in the middle of London’s West End. The jazz is hot (courtesy of songs written by Jamie Cullum), the cocktails are flowing and the privileged few are having one hell of a ball.
But the year is 1940 and that strange time known as the “phoney war” is about to end. Churchill is coming to power; Dunkirk lies just ahead; and beyond that the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. The Halcyon, like Britain, is still intact – but for how long?
Using a hotel as a metaphor for the state of the nation is an old television dramatists’ trick: Stephen Poliakoff did it just recently with Close to the Enemy. Like stately homes, grand hotels allow the upper classes to mix in very close proximity to the lower orders – with all the potential for drama that unleashes.
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