Seventies bestseller gets a radical, Rivals-style reboot

This new adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's 'A Woman of Substance', starring Jessica Reynolds and Brenda Blethyn, is a thing of beauty (and bonking), says Charlotte O'Sullivan

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In this vibrantly acted “revenge romp”, based on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s bestselling novel, a Yorkshire kitchen maid’s plan to acquire wealth and power spirals out of control and leads to unhinged class war.

The eight-part Channel 4 series has clearly been influenced by Succession, as well as The Favourite and Parasite, (though, admittedly, it’s dafter than any of the above). The whole thing comes together, gloriously, in the twist-packed final episode.

Anyone new to the material might be surprised that the bonking far outweighs the romance. And AWOS may also outrage fans of BTB’s book, and the moreishly earnest 1980s miniseries, which starred Jenny Seagrove, Deborah Kerr and Liam Neeson. Where the first adaptation stuck closely to the novel, this one offers a radical reboot.

Belfast actor Jessica Reynolds (Kneecap, House of Guinness) is extraordinary as Emma Harte, who gets exploited, impregnated, betrayed, sexually assaulted and generally underestimated by various members of the aristocratic Fairley family, in the first decades of the 20th century.

Full of coiled intensity, Reynolds ensures that tiny, hardworking Emma - even when delivering duff lines that make her sound like the Edwardian equivalent of a wellness coach - is always the most interesting person in the room.

Brenda Blethyn, leaning into the camp elements of her role as the septuagenarian version of Emma, is just as magnetic. It’s New York, in the mid-Seventies, and Emma is now “the world’s richest woman”, folksily micromanaging her vast retail empire.