The Halcyon hotel is starting to feel like home – episode 3 review

The Halcyon (ITV) tonight opened its swishing swivel doors for a third instalment of wartime glamour, soapy period plotlines and mini-kettles described as “full en suite tea and coffee-making facilities”. The nature of hotel life – well-heeled guests, salt-of-the-earth staff – lends itself well to cross-class romance and culture clashes, especially when they’re rubbing shoulders and sharing cigarettes in the air raid shelter.

Downstairs, Austrian kitchen-hand Max Klein (Nico Rogner) was sacked for stealing – until it turned out he was desperately raising funds to rescue his Jewish family from the Nazis. Upstairs, a dastardly toff (he was a Count and they’re invariably baddies) groped a chambermaid. The Count got his comeuppance, while cast and viewers cheered.

Beneath the handsome sheen, The Halcyon is hardly sophisticated fare. At times, it’s reminiscent of period spoofs such as French & Saunders’ House of Elliot homage “The House of Idiot”. Historical context was signalled with jarringly expositional dialogue. “France has fallen,” announced American radio journalist Joe O’Hara (Matt Ryan). “Britain stands alone now.” “It’ll be all over by Christmas,” declared the concierge (Mark Benton). He might as well have waggled his eyebrows to camera.

Yet it’s stylishly produced, performed with conviction – especially by Steven Mackintosh as hotel manager Richard Garland, Hermione Corfield as his daughter-cum-assistant Emma and Olivia Williams as owner Lady Hamilton – and it jollies along in a way that’s gripping enough without ever tipping into genuine jeopardy. Whenever the real world threatens to intrude on the wood-panelled suites or marble foyer, a heart-warming scene or some jaunty jazz comes along to cheer us up.

We even got a rousingly patriotic closing speech, albeit from the token Yank, who paid tribute to British pluck in the face of adversity.

The Halcyon really belongs on a Sunday night but, minor quibbles aside, it’s a cosily undemanding drama that’s already beginning to feel like home.