Top Gere

Hollywood star Richard Gere makes his British tv debut in a compelling drama about a media baron and his troubled family…

- Caren Clark

Richard Gere might be celebrating his 70th birthday later this year, but the US actor isn’t too old for a new challenge – as he proves this week by starring in BBC2’s intense and shocking drama MotherFatherSon.

Written by Tom Rob Smith, who penned American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the intricate eight-part series is both family saga and conspiracy thriller. Gere plays charismatic media mogul Max Finch, who runs powerful press outlets across the globe and is the patriarch of a super-rich but dysfunctional family.

‘I’ve never done anything like this – playing a lead character in a TV series,’ says Gere, who was won over by the drama’s complexity and scale. ‘MotherFatherSon is like an eight-hour movie. It’s rare to see this depth of character, and human dilemmas where people are trying to do the right thing but tripping over themselves and everyone they care about.’

Max juggles his media empire with a difficult personal life. His ex-wife Kathryn (played by Peaky Blinders’ Helen McCrory) is still struggling with the fallout from their divorce, while their hard-living son Caden (Billy Howle), who runs Max’s UK newspaper,