Mr Selfridge S2 (2014)

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 second series of Mr Selfridge consists of ten episodes which aired from 19 January 2014 to 23 March 2014 and was actually the highest rated series of the entire run with an average of 8.09 million viewers. The series begins five years after the previous one with the store gearing up to celebrate its fifth anniversary but the shadow of war in Europe is looming over them all. Harry is delighted when his estranged wife, Rose, arrives back from the States with their fifteen year old son, Gordon, who will start to feature more this season. Rose isn’t the only one to return as Agnes Towler returns from Paris where she has been training and she takes over the design department at Selfridges. Unbeknownst to her, Henri Leclair has also returned from New York after his new job proved to be a disappointment.

There are some new characters this season as Rose befriends Delphine Day, a novelist, on the voyage over and she makes her presence felt in more ways than one at Selfridges. Delphine is played by the marvellous Polly Walker so she is a welcome addition to the cast but you just know she is going to cause some havoc too. Another new arrival is Mr Thackery, head of the fashion department, who is a stickler for propriety and is set to make Henri’s life a misery. However, the biggest villain of them all is the exceedingly unpleasant Lord Loxley, the abusive husband of Lady Mae, who is intent on reining in his wife and destroying Harry Selfridge. Lord Loxley blackmails his way onto a government military committee and asks for Harry’s help in providing a list of reliable suppliers. When Harry provides him with a list of good suppliers and those to avoid, Lord Loxley deliberately chooses the bad ones to cut costs and then blames Harry when it backfires.

As the talk of war rumbles on, Harry decides to organise a party for the staff to boost morale, as well as mounting an Empire exhibition at the store. Keen to improve his relationship with Rose, Harry agrees to hold the staff party at Delphine’s club and it proves to be a success much to Harry’s surprise. However, Rose is less than pleased when Harry suggests working more with Delphine due to his track record with women, however she has nothing to fear as Harry seems to have turned over a new leaf. Unfortunately that spells bad news for Delphine who is definitely looking for more than a friendship and she is ultimately sent packing. As Harry finally reconciles with his wife, Rose receives some devastating news about her health and has to tell her devastated husband that she is terminally ill. Rose’s illness is a complete fabrication as the real Rose died unexpectedly of influenza during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. I really like Rose so I’m going to miss her next season.

As soon as war is declared, most of the episodes are preoccupied with the war effort in some way and Harry has to come to terms with the fact that the majority of his male staff are eligible to enlist which means they have to hire more women. The government asks Harry to go on a fact-finding trip to Germany and he is ordered to tell no one but when word of his visit leaks to the press, Harry is accused of being a traitor and things get worse when Loxley blames Harry for the substandard army equipment. The scandal leaves Harry’s reputation in tatters and the store begins to experience a decline in profits as customers stay away. I’ve no idea if the trip to Germany was real or not but it seems a bit farfetched to me. We also know that Selfridges prospered during the war so the substandard equipment involvement is probably nonsense as well. Luckily, Harry has Lady Mae on his side and she turns detective to prove her nasty husband is the real guilty one. Katherine Kelly is delicious as Lady Mae when she is scheming.

Harry isn’t the only one being accused of espionage though as Thackery is displeased when Henri returns to the store as Harry’s deputy manager and decides to get revenge. Thackery is quite an odious man so it is pleasing when everything backfires on him. Henri’s difficulties prove to Agnes that he is the man she really loves despite her recent engagement to Victor, however he intends to return to France to join the army. Realising where Agnes’ true affections lie, Victor does the noble thing and it breaks it off with her and wishes Henri good luck. It has always been obvious that Agnes belonged with Henri so it is good to see it finally happen.

And what of Josie Mardle and Roger Grove? It seems the joys of fatherhood are wearing thin for Roger now that he has four children and it is starting to affect his workload. However, Roger’s marital problems are no excuse for him to try to ruin Josie’s love life. After the death of her brother, Josie has inherited some money and has offered to house a Belgian refugee although she doesn’t expect said refugee to be male. Florian, a young violinist, falls in love with Josie and for a time they are really happy until Roger taints it all. Josie breaks it off with Florian citing their difference in age but then decides it is no one else’s business. Good for her.

The second season only takes place over a few months in 1914 but that is enough for the war to have a devastating affect on the staff as several of their colleagues and/or relatives are killed in action or posted as missing including Agnes’ brother, George. The full extent of the war is likely to be glossed over though as the third season is jumping ahead to 1918.