Nicholas Hoult has a blast in this whip-smart, sex and death-filled outing. But it’s the lead who truly shines as the period drama tears through plots packed with bawdy, anarchic fun

Rebecca Nicholson

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Isaw The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s film about Queen Anne, at the cinema when it came out, and I remember the loud tutting of some people sitting nearby who seemed outraged by every rude word and sex scene. Clearly, they had expected a period drama in a more traditional sense, and its bawdy take on history wasn’t for them. The Favourite’s co-writer, Tony McNamara takes another cock-eyed look at history with The Great, debuting its third season in the UK at last. I suspect those cinema-goers would approve of this even less than The Favourite.

It’s their loss. For those yet to fall for its ample charms, The Great plays hard and fast with the rise of Catherine the Great, Empress of all Russia, and her attempts to modernise the nation. But newcomers should not start with season three, and in fact should stop reading now. It is well worth going back to the start to see how everybody got to their positions, and almost requires notes to keep up. It is impossible to accuse The Great of being boring, as every episode romps along at speed, fuelled mostly by those twin engines of every good story, sex and death.

There is far too much plot to recap succinctly, but, in essence, Catherine (Elle Fanning, who carries the series brilliantly) and her husband Peter (Nicholas Hoult, having a dimwitted blast), the former emperor, have had something of an on/off relationship. When Peter had sex with Catherine’s mother (Gillian Anderson, whose appearance was brilliant but brief), then accidentally killed her by shagging her out of a window, it sparked the beginnings of (another) war between the spouses. Love conquers all, however, and after a short spell of attempted murder, they are trying to work through it. “Everyone has their breaking point,” explains Aunt Elizabeth, perhaps the true mastermind of the court. “Mother-fucking is usually it,” concedes Peter.

Yet Catherine and Peter begin the third season very much together, seated in front of a “marriage witch”, whose couple-counselling methods are more inclined towards the killing of doves and chanting than to talking things through. Both the empress and the former emperor have let down their acolytes and supporters by agreeing to work through their issues, and there are some disappointed revolutionaries to soothe. Everyone in this show is horny, murderous or both; sometimes they are also hungry, and that leads to some impetuous decision-making all round.

On Catherine’s side, the perpetually disappointed Orlo continues to be disappointed that Peter still lives. “You are a failure and I was a fool to throw my heart and hopes away on you,” he declares. There are problems, too, with military leader Velementov, who may be celebrated in war, but finds 18th-century ailments harder to defeat. On Peter’s side, his gabbling friends face the wrath of Catherine for their support of her husband/arch enemy, and Catherine’s former best friend, Marial, whose loyalties are only ever her own, is struggling with her marriage to the 10-year-old Maxim.

This all makes it sound rather grave and serious, but the joy of The Great is that it is so absurd. A punishment is offered in the form of taking the bullet or the bear – being shot with a musket or letting a bear have a nibble of a limb and hoping the animal loses its appetite quickly. But this is all about huge, carnal appetites, and there is never any guarantee that either bear, or ruler, will stop when things have gone too far.

That means that no character, aside from Catherine perhaps, is safe from the chop, and major players shuffle off their mortal coils with shocking regularity. This certainly keeps it lively. Nestled in among all the killing and sex, however, is a sneaky cerebral streak, and its episodes swoop in on debates about enlightenment and progress, God, tradition, folklore, nation-building, idealism, and whether the pen really is mightier than the sword. It is also very funny and very silly, and while Hoult’s Peter is attempting to undergo a sort of self-improvement, he still has the temperament of a toddler who has been told they are not allowed to watch any more Peppa Pig.

The Great continues to be a rich treat of a drama, and it is a shame that Channel 4 no longer shows it in the UK, and it has gone to a subscription channel, presumably limiting its audience considerably. For those who can or do watch it, however, this is bawdy, anarchic fun, still as smart as it is wilfully anachronistic. Huzzah!