If, somehow, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel has slipped off your cultural radar, you are in for a treat. First arriving on Amazon Prime last March as a one-off pilot episode, its effervescent charm and barbed wit proved sufficient to land a full season run, charting the fortunes of Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel, an Upper West Side housewife whose picture-perfect world starts to crumble when her husband reveals he’s been having an affair. Her response? To turn to stand-up comedy – for which she has an undeniable, if unexpected knack – as an outlet for her frustrations. This is late ‘50s New York, however, and the idea of a female stand-up is new, even controversial territory. Throw in the pressure to keep up appearances in the wake of her break-up, two equally idiosyncratic parents with a knack for meddling and an enviable period wardrobe, and you have all the component parts for a must-watch – and did we mention it’s the brainchild of Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino?
Following a near clean sweep at the Emmys, a second season is due to land on Prime Video on December 5th. As Midge's world - from her parents' fancy Upper West Side apartment to the Gaslight Café where she inadvertently performs her first set to the quintessentially New York diner she frequents with her delightfully abrasive manager - feels so painstakingly realised down to the tiniest of details, it's tempting to wonder: is this all based on a real life story?
Who was the real life Mrs Maisel?
Midge Maisel is, for the most part, a figment of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s fast-talking imagination, but it’s not hard to note major parallels with one sharp tongued New York comic in particular: Joan Rivers.
You might be most familiar with her latter-day incarnation as the sharp-tongued host of Fashion Police, but back in the ‘60s, Rivers was a pioneering female comic who wasn’t afraid to shock, often weaving then-taboo topics such as sex and divorce into her sets and tiptoeing the boundaries of taste. Like Midge, she was based in New York (albeit in Brooklyn, rather than the markedly fancier Upper West Side) and came from a Jewish background; she also had an early, short-lived marriage in her twenties, marrying James Sanger in 1955 and obtaining an annulment just six months later (her husband did not want children, something which he'd neglected to tell her before their wedding). And like Midge, Rivers finessed her act in Greenwich Village comedy clubs like the Gaslight - though it wasn't until the mid-'60s that she found fame through appearances on US TV staples like The Ed Sullivan Show.
Acknowledging this influence in an interview with Vanity Fair, Sherman-Palladino recalled how the ‘dichotomy’ at the heart of Rivers’ work informed some of the conflict in Mrs Maisel. '[Rivers] had that wonderful mix, that battle of wanting to be accepted on a feminine level – [but] you can’t have that many balls and be accepted on a feminine level,’ she told the magazine. ‘It was such a wonderful dichotomy, and she crafted these monster jokes […] That’s how we’re looking at Midge’s humour. She’s going to learn how to control that and craft it a little more.’
Indeed, it’s hardly a surprise to learn that, to prepare to play Midge, actress Rachel Brosnahan studied footage of Rivers’ comic sets. The star is, however, very clear about a key difference between Rivers’ real-life comedy and that of her fictional counterpart. ‘Joan’s comedy came from a place of feeling like she never belonged. She always referred to herself as the ugly duckling,’ she told Vanity Fair. Midge, meanwhile, with her unassailable sense of self and innate optimism, ‘is the opposite. She knows she is beautiful; she knows she is great at what she does, and she will be the first to tell you about it.’
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1 of 10Les Misérables
Hold the rousing rendition of One Day More: the BBC's new version of Victor Hugo's sprawling epic tale has been adapted (by Andrew 'Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice,' Davies, no less) straight from the book, meaning there'll be no singing the songs of angry men. What the series will have in common with the recent movie musical, though, is an impressive cast. Lily Collins will play struggling single mother Fantine, The Affair's Dominic West is troubled hero Jean Valjean and David Oyelowo is his nemesis Inspector Javert. Plus, a handful of The Crown's new royals will be joining in, too: Olivia Colman plays the villainous Madame Thernardier and Josh O'Connor (the show's new Prince Charles) takes the Eddie Redmayne role as student revolutionary Marius. BBC One; expected later this winter
2 of 10The Little Drummer Girl
Two years after The Night Manager served as Tom Hiddleston's extended Bond audition, another John Le Carré novel, 1983's The Little Drummer Girl, is getting the big-budget miniseries treatment. The magnetic Florence Pugh gets a long-overdue lead TV role as Charlie, a young actress who gets caught up in a high stakes espionage plot when she becomes involved with an Israeli intelligence officer (played by Big Little Lies' Alexander Skarsgard). BBC One; expected later this autumn
3 of 10Black Earth Rising
Expect big things from Black Earth Rising. A cinematic thriller with a labyrinthine plot that explores the legacy of international war crimes and the West's relationship with Africa, it also marks the first partnership between the BBC and Netflix. Chewing Gum's Michaela Coel plays Kate Ashby, a young woman who was rescued from the Rwandan genocide as a child and adopted by a hotshot British barrister. When Kate's mother (The Crown's Harriet Walter) takes on a case involving an African militia leader, she becomes embroiled in a deeply person - and potentially perilous - quest for justice. BBC Two; expected later this autumn
4 of 10Bodyguard
Whatever the current mania for re-making the entire '90s entertainment back catalogue might have you thinking, BBC's Bodyguard has nothing to do with the Whitney Houston movie. Rather, it's the latest series from Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, a stylish thriller which stars Keeley Hawes as a divisive Home Secretary and Game of Thrones's Richard Madden as the war veteran assigned as her new protection officer, despite his distaste for her political beliefs. BBC One; August 26th
5 of 10Wanderlust
A flurry of eye-brow raising headlines branding Wanderlust the 'most controversial' and 'most explicit' BBC drama to date has surely only served to raise anticipation for this new six-part series. Toni Collette stars as Joy, a therapist struggling to keep the spark alive in her marriage after an accident causes her to reassess the relationship. Potentially Ofcom-bothering sex scenes aside, it looks set to explore big questions about family, love and monogamy. BBC One; expected later this autumn
6 of 10Maniac
Emma Stone's Netflix debut also doubles up as a Superbad reunion. In Maniac, which has been adapted from a hit Norwegian series and directed by True Detective's Cary Fukunaga, she re-unites with her former co-star Jonah Hill. This time, the pair play strangers who take part in a pharmaceutical trial, testing out a wonder drug which promises to repair the mind entirely, be it from mental illness or heartbreak – until the side effects kick in, dragging participants into another dimension entirely.Netflix; September 21st
7 of 10The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
If there's currently a Riverdale shaped hole in your viewing schedule (no judgement here), steel yourself for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix's reboot of the '90s teen classic. Don't expect much of the cosy comedy and talking cats that characterized the Melissa Joan Hart show, though: it's been reimagined as a dark coming of age story, with horror classics like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist cited as influences. Didn't see that coming, did you? Kiernan Shipka (aka Mad Men's Sally Draper) stars, plus it's set in the town along from Archie and co, leaving the door open for a crossover episode further down the line…Netflix; October 26th
8 of 10Killing Eve
How could Phoebe Waller Bridge top a hit like 2016's Fleabag? By stepping behind the camera to direct and produce Killing Eve, a new series that marries the pitch black humour of her debut with all the pacy, high-octane thrills of a spy drama. Based on a series of novels by Luke Jennings, it stars Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh as Eve, a bored, deskbound MI5 analyst who is suddenly tasked with bringing down Villanelle, a vicious but undeniably glamorous Russian assassin played by Jodie Comer. Soon, the two very different women are locked in mutual obsession, taking turns to trap one another in cat and mouse mind games. BBC One and BBC Three; expected in September
9 of 10Vanity Fair
Autumn wouldn't be autumn without the promise of a new period drama to schedule our Sunday evenings around. Stepping up to fill the old Downton slot is ITV's lavish new adaptation of Vanity Fair, Thackeray's sweeping satirical novel. The seven-part series follows the machinations of devious social climber Becky Sharp (played by rising star Olivia Cooke), a brash anti-heroine who's an anomaly in the ranks of simpering bonnet-clad women that tend to populate classic novels. ITV; expected September
10 of 10The Romanoffs
Ever had an inkling that you're a bit… different? Special, maybe? Potentially a long-lost member of Russia's royal dynasty? While we try to confine our own royal wish fulfillment to repeat viewings of The Princess Diaries, Amazon's intriguing new anthology series The Romanoffs tells the stories of people scattered around the world who have one deeply-held conviction in common: that they're the descendants of Russia's ill-fated Romanov dynasty. With showrunner Matthew Weiner at the helm, the show's cast has become a mini Mad Men reunion, featuring Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and costume designer Janie Bryant. Amazon Prime; October 12th
As for the other potential Mrs Maisels? Brosnahan also investigated the work of Phyllis Diller, a ‘50s and ‘60s comic with an exaggerated on-stage persona (big hair, garish dresses and a distinctive cackle), but it seems that Diller might have served as inspiration for another Mrs Maisel character: Sophie Lennon, the successful stand-up played by Jane Lynch, a wealthy sophisticate who has built her fortune on caricaturing housewives.
As for the other potential Mrs Maisels? Brosnahan also investigated the work of Phyllis Diller, a ‘50s and ‘60s comic with an exaggerated on-stage persona (big hair, garish dresses and a distinctive cackle), but it seems that Diller might have served as inspiration for another Mrs Maisel character: Sophie Lennon, the successful stand-up played by Jane Lynch, a wealthy sophisticate who has built her fortune on caricaturing housewives. Another influence was Jean Carroll, a now little-known name who was one of the first female stand-ups to hit the mainstream, appearing on Ed Sullivan and even headlining her own sitcom, The Jean Carroll Show, for one season. There are elements of all of these women in Midge, and in nodding to these trailblazing female comedians, Amy Sherman-Palladino is doing what she does best – putting compelling, multi-faceted female characters back into pop culture.
Season two of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel premieres on Prime Video on December 5th