Mr Selfridge S1 (2013)

Revisited
Roger Grove, Harry Gordon Selfridge and Arthur Crabb

Background

Mr Selfridge is a British period drama about Harry Gordon Selfridge who founded the Selfridges department store on Oxford Street, London, in 1908. The series is based on the book Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead and follows Harry Selfridge’s journey from the moment the ground was first laid to the day he was ousted from the board. The series plays a little loose and fast with the dates as Harry appears younger on the series than he would have been in reality and he was not forced out until 1941 when he would have been in his eighties. The series ends in 1929 so we do not see the gradual decline in the family’s wealth which began during the Great Depression or the effects of the Second World War.

Harry Gordon Selfridge was a rather loud and flamboyant character so he is played very well by Jeremy Piven who plays the character with great enthusiasm. As well as Harry, we meet his long-suffering wife, Rose, who puts up with his gambling and infidelity with a good deal of grace, although we don’t really get to see any of her real life accomplishments as she is kept very much in Harry’s shadow. The couple had four surviving children, Rosalie, Violette, Gordon and Beatrice, although we don’t get to see much of them in the first season. Harry’s mother, Lois Selfridge, also comes to London to stay with the family and she is very close to her son who she raised alone after being abandoned by her husband.

As far as I know, the staff that work in the store are all fictional but they play an essential part in the success of Selfridges and many of them come and go throughout the four seasons. The most prominent roles are Roger Grove, the chief manager; Arthur Crabb, the finance manager; Josie Mardle, head of accessories; Henri Leclair, head of display; and the shop assistants, Agnes Towler, Kitty Hawkins and Doris Millar. We also have Victor Colleano who works as a waiter in the Palm Court restaurant and Lady Mae Loxley who becomes Harry’s patron. Once the store opens its doors, we are introduced to a host of real life characters like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Anna Pavlova, Ernest Shackleton and King Edward VII who stop by for various reasons.

A replica of the store as it would have looked in 1909 was built in north London and the exterior of the store was recreated in The Historic Dockyard Chatham, in Kent. The first season consisted of ten episodes which aired from 6 January 2013 to 10 March 2013

Review

The first episode begins with a flashback to the previous year when Harry’s business partner suddenly pulls out as he is worried about how the project is progressing and it is a huge blow to Harry. Harry keeps the news quiet so as not to jeopardise the project any further and with the help of Frank Edwards, a newspaper man, he finds new investors via Lady Mae Loxley who becomes a valued contact for Harry. One of Harry’s biggest innovations is to have all the goods on display in each department which was unheard of in retail at that time and hard to imagine nowadays. So the modern viewer can understand just how different this was we see Harry visit another store to purchase a pair of gloves and he has to get the sales assistant, Agnes Towler, to empty all the drawers so he can see them. Agnes is later fired for unbecoming conduct and Harry repays her by giving her a job as a senior sales assistant at Selfridges.

The store initially suffers from a lack of customers so Harry gets the idea to invite the French aviator, Louis Blériot, the first man to fly across the Channel, to the store with his aircraft. The gimmick proves to be such a success that it lays the groundwork for personal appearances from ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, author Arthur Conan Doyle and explorer Ernest Shackleton in future episodes. With business finally booming, Harry decides to spend some time with a musical hall singer, Ellen Love, with whom he starts having an affair. Harry tries to cover up his romance by naming Ellen as the Spirit of Selfridges but Rose isn’t fooled and retaliates by agreeing to pose for young bohemian artist Roddy Temple. However, Roddy is interested in more than painting and begins to make a nuisance of himself when Rose turns him down. There is also trouble in store for Harry when he grows tired of Ellen and she doesn’t take it too well. The Selfridges and Lady Mae are humiliated when they are ridiculed in Ellen’s new play and Rose decides to take the children back to the States.

Meanwhile, the staff at the store are also having their own fair share of heartache as Agnes finds herself falling in love with Henri Leclair as she helps him with the window displays but she is left in the cold when an old flame visits him and he gets a job offer he can’t refuse. Agnes renews her friendship with Victor Colleano whose relationship with Lady Mae has fizzled out leaving him with no financial backing for a restaurant he has always dreamed of having. For me, Agnes is the real Spirit of Selfridges and her poor background offers a decent contrast to all the wealth on display, especially when her drunken and abusive father turns up to ruin everything she has managed to build. Agnes goes on quite the journey within Selfridges as she moves from being a sales assistant to one of the designers creating Selfridges famous window displays.

The other big romance is a surprising one between Josie Mardle and Roger Grove that has been going on for more than a decade by the time it is revealed to the viewer. Roger Grove is a married man with a wife who is often sick so it appears he sought comfort in the arms of the obliging Josie. When Roger’s wife dies, Josie thinks this is finally her time but she is stunned when he chooses to marry the much younger Doris Millar instead as he wants to have children. I felt really sorry for Josie at this point as she had wasted her time pining for a man she could not have only for him to marry someone else. It is also a poor reflection on Roger Grove.

All in all, the show is an enjoyable watch if you ignore the inaccuracies and the set is impressive enough it really looks like they filmed in a department store. The costumes are also excellent and very Edwardian in style as we are in the last few months of the reign of King Edward VII. As well as being the first department store to openly display its merchandise, the store was also the first to promote cosmetics to women and it is hilarious when you realise how scandalous that was at the time considering it is now a multi-billion dollar industry.

Further Reading

Explore the characters and books that inspired the series

  • Harry Gordon Selfridge (Jeremy Priven)
  • Rose Selfridge (Frances O’Connor)
  • Lois Selfridge (Kika Markham)
  • Lady Mae Loxley (Katherine Kelly)
  • Arthur Crabb (Ron Cook)
  • Roger Grove (Tom Goodman-Hill)
  • Agnes Towler (Aisling Loftus)
  • Henri Leclair (Grégory Fitoussi)
  • Josie Mardle (Amanda Abbington)
  • Victor Colleano (Trystan Gravelle)
  • Kitty Hawkins (Amy Beth Hayes)
  • Doris Millar (Lauren Crace)
  • Ellen Love (Zoe Tapper)
  • Roderick Temple (Oliver Jackson-Cohen)
  • Frank Edwards (Samuel West)
  • George Towler (Calum Callaghan)
  • HARRY GORDON SELFRIDGE: Based on the real life retail magnate who founded the department store Selfridges on Oxford Street, London. He was nicknamed the Earl of Oxford Street when he became one of the wealthiest men in the United Kingdom. His fortune began to decline due to the Great Depression and extensive gambling debts. He was eventually ousted from the board at Selfridges and died on 8 May 1947.
  • ROSE SELFRIDGE: Rose was a member of the wealthy Buckingham family from Chicago and was a successful property owner in her own right. She married Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1890 and had five children, although the eldest son died in infancy. Rose moved to London when Harry set his heart on opening a store there but she missed her family in Chicago. She died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic on 12 May 1918.
  • ROGER GROVE: Roger is the chief manager of Selfridges and considered Harry’s right hand man. Although married, he has a longer affair with Josie Mardle. He eventually marries Doris Millar and they have five children.
  • ARTHUR CLUBB: Arthur is head of finances at Selfridges and loyal to Arthur. He keeps an eye on the accounts and often has to talk Harry out of rash decisions. If he can’t talk Harry out of an investment, then Arthur finds a way of making it work.
  • JOSIE MARDLE: Josie works as head of the accessories department and is a much respected member of staff at Selfridges. After a long-term affair with Roger Grove, she is blindsided when he marries the much younger Doris Millar so he can have children.
  • AGNES TOWLER: Agnes leaves home to get away from her drunken father and gets a job as a sales assistant at Gamadge’s but gets sacked when she allows Harry Selfridge behind her counter. A year later, Harry hires Agnes as a senior sales assistant but she eventually becomes a display designer.
  • HENRI LECLAIR: A friend of Harry’s, Henri is brought from France to transform Selfridge’s window displays. He develops a romantic interest in Agnes but eventually leaves for a job in New York.
  • LADY MAE LOXLEY: A former stage actress, Mae is in unhappy marriage with Lord Loxley and often has affairs with eligible young men. Lady Mae has a lot of social standing and she uses her contacts to help Harry as well as befriending his family.
  • VICTOR COLLEANO: Victor is a handsome young man who gets a job as a waiter in the Palm Court where he learns he is there to please the lonely women more than anything else. He has a romantic interest in Agnes Towler but her interests lie elsewhere so he has an affair with Lady Mae in the hopes she will help fund a restaurant he dreams of opening.