Beecham House

Sumptuous Masterpiece romantic melodrama. ... ITV canceled House after one season, so if you want a happy ending, stop watching several minutes before the end - the Taj Mahal is your cue - to avoid an ill-advised cliffhanger. [8 - 21 Jun 2020, p.5]

When the show focuses on Beecham and his staff, it’s not terrible. But when it ventures off the grounds of Beecham’s ornate estate, things go sideways.

While there is obviously a gap for more nuanced depictions of the British in India, an era invariably reduced to a series of lame cliches, this isn’t it. I’m afraid this Beecham’s will leave you... cold.

It is a straightforward white saviour narrative, and unless having white characters who are as underdeveloped as the Indian ones is the equality dreamed of, it is hard to see how any progress has been achieved here at all. As it stands, it’s a jewel in no one’s crown.