Mr Selfridge S3 (2015)

Review

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. For more background information, please see the post for Season 1.

The third season consisted of ten episodes which aired from 25 January 2015 to 29 March 2015 but the viewing figures were slightly down from the previous year with an average of 7.32 million viewers. The series begins in May 1918 with a distraught Harry standing by the graveside of his wife and wondering how he is going to be able to live without her. The story then jumps ahead to Spring 1919 where Rosalie, the eldest Selfridge daughter, is marrying Serge de Bolotoff, the son of an impoverished Russian princess. Serge is an aviator and his callous behaviour towards Rosalie at the wedding tells us all we need to know about his character as he is more interested in tempting his new father-in-law into investing in a new aerodrome in West London. Unfortunately, Rosalie proves to a rather wimpy character who puts up with Serge’s behaviour without making a fuss and rather fades into the background in comparison to her sister, Violette, who is a much more interesting character.

Violette begins to frequent Victor Colleano’s nightclub and before long they are having a relationship which is a bit icky considering Violette was a little girl in the first season when Victor was already a grown man. However, Victor has serious problems as he refuses to continue paying protection money to a corrupt policeman and ends up in the pocket of Regan, a gangster, who wants Victor to set up gambling tables in the back room. Agnes’ brother, George, who has been working for Victor decides he cannot tolerate Regan’s antics so he quits his job and returns to Selfridges where he gets close to Kitty’s sister, Connie. A dejected Violette, at odds with Victor and her father, decides to move to Paris where she is hoping for a marriage proposal from one of Serge’s aviator friends.

As the First World War draws to a close, Harry discovers he has a problem when the returning soldiers cause trouble with the female workers in the loading bay but he is reluctant to pay off the women as they worked hard during the war. The issue escalates when Arthur Clubb points out that the store cannot afford to keep on the extra women and Harry is forced to let them go. A group of homeless soldiers also cause problems for Kitty when she is attacked in the street outside the store and it affects her confidence. Kitty, now married to Frank Edwards, has a more prominent role this season in the absence of Lady Mae and Agnes Towler. When Henri Leclair returns from the war, he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder so Agnes decides the best thing is for them to return to France after they get married. Agnes is a big loss to the show as she was very much at the heart of it and Kitty cannot fill her shoes. Another glaring absence is Lady Mae who is said to be living in France after her divorce from Loxley, however she is missing from the show as Katherine Kelly was pregnant.

Speaking of Lord Loxley, he is intent on getting revenge on Harry and wastes no time in exploiting the weak character of Serge by getting him into extensive debt via gambling and promising to back his aerodrome project when Harry refuses to invest. Still grieving for his wife, Harry has been drawn into a project to build affordable housing for demobilised soldiers and has fallen under the spell of Nancy Webb who is not what she seems. To raise money for the housing estate, Harry has to sell some shares in Selfridges which means he loses his majority and Loxley quickly snaps them up. Loxley also buys Rosalie’s shares that she is forced to sell to cover Serge’s gambling debts. Loxley demands a seat on the board where he undermines Harry’s authority and influences the other shareholders into looking at Harry’s finances more closely. However, Harry survives the vote of no confidence by making good on his promise to double the profits of the shareholders.

The heartache continues for Josie Mardle as Florian does not survive the war and she soon finds herself guarding a secret for Doris Grove when the woman confesses that her youngest son, Ernest, was fathered by a childhood friend who is pressuring Doris into letting him see the boy. However, Josie is forced to tell Roger the truth when Doris dies after being hit by a car. As expected, Roger takes the news badly and orders Josie to take the boy away. However, George Towler eventually persuades Roger to reunite his family after telling him about his own childhood with an alcoholic father. George has always been a likeable character but he has really stepped up this season in the absence of his sister to become the moral compass of the show.

There is a lot of skulduggery this season and the plots are all quite complex but the Loxley stuff gets really tedious and I’m glad we’re seeing the last of him. The season also suffers badly from the absence of Lady Mae who brings a lot of life to the show and none of the other women are able to step into her shoes. Rosalie is a massive disappointment as I was expecting more fireworks from her but she is far too passive. Zoe Wanamaker makes a decent attempt at livening things up as Serge’s impoverished mother who is milking her new relationship with the Selfridge family and generally making a nuisance of herself but it turns out she really is waiting on her family jewels coming from Russia. Princess Marie and Serge don’t appear in the fourth season and their whereabouts are never explained.