Licence To Thrill

"I am Our Lord's chosen instrument to whip the devil out of you, and I have to do my duty no matter how much pain it causes me. So be prepared to drink your cocktails standing up for a few days."

Actress Lara Pulver, who had viewers' pulses racing with her nude scene in Sherlock, is to star as a real-life Bond girl. The 32-year-old, whose roles have also included appearances in BBC1's Spooks and Robin Hood, will portray the wife of 007 creator Ian Fleming in Sky Atlantic's upcoming biopic. The drama - which has the working title Fleming - will see Dominic Cooper play the James Bond creator and former naval intelligence officer. Pulver will play Ann O'Neill, an elegant Baroness whose wartime meeting with Fleming alters the course of the rest of their lives. "I am thrilled to be playing Ann, a real life high society siren worthy of Fleming's finest fictional femme fatales," said Pulver. "In extraordinary times Ann had the ear of politicians as powerful as Churchill and counted artists like Lucian Freud among her friends, yet was consumed by a torrid romance with the great Ian Fleming; a twisted and passionate love that would last the rest of their lives."

Fleming had many girlfriends but seems never to have been in love until he met Ann O’Neill, née Charteris, during the war. To give some idea of the complexities involved, he was staying with her when her first husband, Lord O’Neill, was killed, and was asked by her to break the news to the man who was to become her second husband, Esmond Harmsworth, later Rothermere. It was Fleming’s inaction which led to Ann marrying Rothermere, but after the war Ann and Ian slowly and tormentedly realised their mistake, if that is what it was, and married in 1952. It was on honeymoon, ensconced in their Jamaican retreat, that O'Neill proved decisive in making him sit down and get on with his long-contemplated task of writing a book, Casino Royale. They were married for 12 years until Fleming's death in 1964. The part may prove to be another saucy role for Pulver as a key component of their union seemes to have been a shared love of spanking and sexual role-play. "I am Our Lord's chosen instrument to whip the devil out of you, and I have to do my duty no matter how much pain it causes me. So be prepared to drink your cocktails standing up for a few days," he wrote in a letter to her.


The spanking wouldn’t matter to anyone now, notes John Lanchester, if it didn’t show up in the Bond books, but of course it does. Simon Winder, the editor responsible for republishing all the novels has said simply and robustly that Fleming was a sado-masochist. "This is a sensible way of dealing with the profoundly unsensible sexual attitudes in the novels," states Lanchester. "It is not anachronistic to find the erotic climate of the novels strange and distracting, since plenty of people were distracted by it at the time. Christopher Hitchens quotes Fleming’s friend and neighbour Noël Coward on the subject of Honeychile Rider’s world-famous bottom, 'almost as firm and rounded as a boy’s': 'I know we are all becoming progressively more broadminded nowadays but really, old chap, what could you have been thinking of?'" In a way, we are now better placed to see the sexual attitudes of the books for what they are, part of the wish fulfilment in which the Bond novels bask, in which KGB agents disguised as English gents expose themselves as impostors by ordering red wine with fish, and tough dykes called Pussy Galore secretly long to be converted from sapphism by our cruelly handsome hero. "The contrast between the real woman Fleming loved, complicated and demanding and grown-up as she was, and the wank-fantasies of the novels, must have been deeply embarrassing for Ann, and it is no wonder that she disliked Bond as much as she did," says Lanchester.

Of course, sado-masochism permeates the whole atmosphere of the Bond books. It is easy to forget until re-reading them just how often Bond gets beaten up, how long he spends recovering from it, and how a woman is usually involved in the recuperative process. The strongest currents of feeling in the novels always circulate around these sequences. "It would be an exaggeration, but not all that much of an exaggeration, to say that the Bond novels are at heart a series of lavish beatings strung together with thriller elements," reasons Lanchester. "The first of these beatings is the most famous – that’s the one in Casino Royale where Bond sits in a chair with a hole cut out of it and has his testicles thrashed with a carpet beater – but not one of the novels is without its scene of Bond in torment. The tenderest, most yearning word in Fleming’s lexicon is 'cruel'.

Also cast in Fleming is Annabelle Wallis (Pan Am, The Tudors) as Muriel, a young girl who catches Ian's eye, and Lesley Manville (Vera Drake) as the author's mother Eve. Ian's brother - the celebrated travel writer and war hero Peter - will be portrayed by Hellboy's Rupert Evans, while Samuel West (Mr Selfridge) will play director of naval intelligence Admiral John Godfrey - who shaped Fleming's portrayal of Bond's boss M. The final cast addition is Anna Chancellor (The Hour), who will play the Admiral's secretary Lieutenant Monday - one of Fleming's inspirations for Miss Moneypenny. Fleming will be shot on location in the United Kingdom and Budapest in early 2013 and will transmit on Sky Atlantic HD later this year.

Looking further ahead, and perhaps inspired by Ann O'Neill, Pulver has said that she would love to reprise her risque role as whip-smart dominatrix Irene Adler in Sherlock. Pulver's role in series two episode 'A Scandal in Belgravia' saw her dress up in S&M gear, and strip down to nothing, as her character engaged in a sexually charged battle of wits with the famous detective. It concluded with Adler facing an ambiguous future. "The response has been quite enormous to be honest," Lara told AccessHollywood.com, referring to how fans have taken to her Sherlock character, who entranced Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes. When asked if she would go back, Pulver teased: "Absolutely… if the potential is there for the character to return. She is alive. He did save her. Then, it would be an absolute pleasure to return."

Pulver was romantically linked to Cumberbatch last year, but swiftly took to Twitter to insist that they are just friends. She famously had some very intimate scenes with Benedict in Sherlock and she said filming those helped them grow closer and create the chemistry between the two actors on the show. "When you’re having to be that intimate with someone, barriers just come down because you’re having to trust that person, you’re having to feel very safe in their presence. And he was such a gentlemen and having just done 'Frankenstein' himself on stage, where he’d been butt naked, with Jonny Lee Miller… he was extremely sympathetic as well to the process," Lara told Access. "So I’d say we have a lovely chemistry and a lovely rapport and a relationship where we might not see each other for a few months and we get back together and it’s just like old friends."

Her character's profession necessitated that nude scene, a first for Pulver. "It was a closed set. I had on just shoes, earrings and lipstick," she says, at first self-conscious of her lack of clothes. "It was no mean feat for me to shoot for eight hours being naked. But then something goes on in your head that changed the whole dynamic," says Pulver, who realized, "'I'm naked, but I have all the power.' It's a device for her to gain control over the most intelligent man she's ever met. It was like a game of chess. Sherlock has never met his match in that way; there have always been other things preoccupying his brain. On the list of one to ten, sex has been at the bottom." Pulver prepared by shopping for corsets and whips and doing research, mostly online. "If anyone had got a hold of my computer the week before we started I would have been in prison," she laughs. "My future lovers will benefit for sure."

In the meantime, Pulver will play Clarice Orisni in Starz’s highly anticipated Da Vinci’s Demons this April. She is the devoted wife of Lorenzo Medici, the patron of Leonardo Da Vinci in the reimagination of the life of the famed artist and inventor. "She is a dutiful wife who is very pro-Florence, a shrewd politician and… she is the woman behind the throne," she said of her newest character, a sort of Renaissance-era Jackie Kennedy. "She is never going to undermine her husband, and yet you get these lovely nuggets in later episodes of just seeing them in their day to day lives and realize these two people care and love each other deeply, and she will do whatever she can to accommodate and allow for him to progress and to allow Florence and the family to flourish." With Leonardo (played by Brit Tom Riley) being driven, sometimes impulsively by his creativity and insatiable quest for knowledge, Lara’s Clarice will have to step in to quiet the wild genius. "We get a couple of moments where she almost trying to keep him in check. She has a mission and she has a vision, which conflicts slightly with his free thinking, ambitious, wayward mind and she just wants to keep him on track and she’ll use her femininity," Pulver said. "I think, actually, to a certain degree, she’s the most challenging character that he meets because he can’t use his natural charm with her because she’s a shrewd business woman."

Da Vinci’s Demons premieres April 12 on Starz
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Entente Cordiale

Whisper it quietly but Sky Atlantic & Canal+ are believed to have found their lead actors for their upcoming co-production The Tunnel / Le Tunnel, just weeks before filming is scheduled to begin. Stephen Dillane and Clémence Poésy have been cast in the 10-part series as the male and female leads. Dillane will play Karl Roebuck, the English detective assigned to the case, while Clémence Poésy will play Élise Wasserman, a French detective who is assigned to the investigation alongside Roebuck.

An adaptation of Scandinavian series The Bridge (Broen / Bron), The Tunnel / Le Tunnel is set against the backdrop of Europe in crisis. When a prominent French politician is found dead on the border between the UK and France, the two detectives are sent to investigate on behalf of their respective countries. However, the case takes a surreal turn when a shocking discovery is made at the crime scene, forcing the French and British police into an uneasy partnership. As the serial killer uses ever more elaborate and ingenious methods to highlight the moral bankruptcy of modern society, Roebuck and Wasserman are drawn deeper into his increasingly personal agenda.

Stephen Dillane is currently a series regular on Game of Thrones as Stannis Baratheon, was previously a main cast member on Hunted and co-starred in miniseries John Adams and Secret State. Clémence Poésy’s previous credits include Bienvenue chez les Rozes, Le grand Meaulnes, Le dernier gang, Pièce montée, In Bruges, Gossip Girl and Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter feature film series. The talented Parisian is well-known to British audiences having recently starred as Isabelle Azaire in the BBC produced Birdsong and as Queen Isabella in adaptations of Shakespeare's tetralogy of history plays, The Hollow Crown.


Kudos Film & TV and Shine France are producing the 10 episode series, with Jane Featherstone, Karen Wilson, Manda Levin, Ben Richards, Anne Mensah, Fabrice de la Patellière, Lars Blomgren and Nora Melhli serving as executive producers. Dominic Moll is directing. In a first for broadcasting for the UK and France the production will be bilingual; with subtitles for viewers less than fluent in their neighbour country's language. Sky Atlantic’s push into original programming has been underpinned by a desire to have cinematic series headlined by big name actors. That was the approach with Hit and Miss, the channel’s serial about a transgender hit man, which was headlined by Academy Award winner Chloe Sevigny. Having the likes of Poésy and Dillane certainly fits in with that same desire and is sure to attract the awards, not to mention the viewers, that BSkyB are after.
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Sky's The Limit

Sky has ordered 10 major dramas across its channels, including a "no-holds barred" four-part Ian Fleming biopic for Sky Atlantic and talent-led Sky Arts projects starring the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Kylie Minogue, and created by Idris Elba, Matt Smith and Grayson Perry. The series were ordered by Sky head of drama Anne Mensah and mark the first time the pay-TV broadcaster has taken international rights to drama commissions for distribution via Sky Vision - although it would not reveal which projects it is distributing. "When we have great talent come to us with their projects of conviction, we are always open to the discussion - one of the best things about being a subscription business is that we’re able to take more creative risks," Mensah said.

Ecosse Films’ Fleming stars British actor Domnic Cooper as the James Bond creator, "whose real life was as exciting, eventful and sexually charged as his famous creation". The miniseries is set during WWII when the maverick and hedonistic Fleming was hired by British Naval intelligence as part of its undercover campaign against the Nazis, after his careers as a banker and stockbroker failed. It was these wartime experiences that provided the inspiration for British spy 007, who first appeared in print in "Casino Royale," published in 1953. Like his character, Fleming was well known in English society for his womanizing and taste for alcohol. "Stepping into the shoes of the spy who not only created the enigmatic character of 007, but who fantasized about being him has to be every actor's dream," said Cooper. Rising British actress Annabelle Wallis has been cast as Muriel Wright, a woman with whom Fleming had a love affair and who some believe to be the original inspiration for the Bond Girl.

Written by John Brownlow and Don Macpherson, and helmed by Mat Whitecross (The Road to Guantanamo), Fleming will be shot on location in London and Budapest in the coming months for broadcast on Sky Atlantic in late 2013. The series will be distributed by BBC Worldwide. US cable network BBC America is already on board and it is thought VoD rights in the US are also being discussed. Ecosse Films founder Douglas Rae said it brought the project to Mensah because Sky had acquired the James Bond feature film library. The series, which was originally developed as a feature film, is based on a John Pearson biography. "Ian Fleming's story is as dramatic and entertaining as any of the Bond films. Sky Atlantic is aspiring to be like HBO in scale, and that is perfect for us," Rae said.


Also coming to Sky Atlantic is an adaptation of hit Scandinavian series The Bridge which, in an act of entente cordiale, is being co-produced with French broadcaster Canal+. The Tunnel begins its 25-week filming schedule in early February and will be bilingual – something producers claim will be a first in broadcasting for the UK and France – with subtitles for viewers less than fluent in their neighbour country's language. (No word on how the characters are going to overcome the language barrier). Ben Richards (Spooks, Outcasts, Party Animals) has headed up the Anglo-French writing team behind the 10-part series, which will be primarily set in the coastal towns of Folkestone and Calais against the backdrop of a Europe in crisis. When a prominent French politician is found dead on the border between the UK and France, detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann are sent to investigate on behalf of their respective countries. However, the case takes a surreal turn when a shocking discovery is made at the crime scene, forcing the French and British police into an uneasy partnership. As the serial killer uses ever more elaborate and ingenious methods to highlight the moral bankruptcy of modern society, Karl and Elise are drawn deeper into his increasingly personal agenda.

Kudos Film & TV and Shine France are producing, with Jane Featherstone, Karen Wilson, Manda Levin, Ben Richards, Anne Mensah, Fabrice De La Patellière, Lars Blomgren and Nora Melhli serving as executive producers. "The state and future of the European Union has never been more part of the public conversation," says Mensah. "We're absolutely thrilled to be working with Canal+ and Kudos Film and TV on this exceptional series. The Tunnel's journey into the mind of a politically motivated serial killer will really build on Sky Atlantic's ambition to be the home of world class storytelling." De La Patellière, director of French fiction for Canal+ said: "This partnership combines Franco-British talents both in the writing and production of the drama … our objective is to develop a major series that is undeniably original and unique."

Sky Arts has commissioned several 30-minute dramas for the latest season of its 'Playhouse Presents' strand, which goes to air in March. These include Eleven Film’s Mr Understood from Grayson Perry, the story of a young transvestite with Kate Hardie, and Nightshift, a Company Pictures and Cajun Pictures co-pro, a cop drama written by Jimmy Gardner. There are also four from Sprout Pictures, starting with Hey Diddly Dee, a dark comedy starring Kylie Minogue opposite Peter Serafinowicz and David Harewood and directed by Marc Warren. Minogue is to play the character of Bibi in a whodunnit about a group of actors putting on a play about Andy Warhol, and said of the project: "When the script was sent to me, I read it and knew instinctively I wanted to be part of this project. In Hey Diddly Dee, Marc has created a beautiful and quirky story. I have also enjoyed many of the Playhouse Presents series and love that they have created a platform for this type of work." Cargese, a piece of poetic realism about adolescent love and loss, is directed by Doctor Who’s Matt Smith. Idris Elba-directed Pavement Psychologist stars Anna Friel; while Vanessa Redgrave-fronted Union Square is a comedy based on a short story by Leonard B. Francavilla. "A disturbance leads to some strange encounters for two policemen in this funny and poignant portrait of loneliness in the city," the project description says. Johnny Vegas also takes to the director’s seat in Ragged, which will star Ricky Tomlinson as a hunger striker.

Last year’s inaugural series of Playhouse Presents was well-received and the most successful series for the channel. More recently, Daniel Radcliffe and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm appeared in A Young Doctor’s Notebook, an interpretation of playwright Mikhail Bulgakov’s short stories. According to James Hunt, Channel Director of Sky Arts, this was part of the reason why the second series features "the most extraordinary talent". He says: "The reception to the first series of Playhouse Presents was nothing short of phenomenal. We are passionate about bringing the very best comedy and drama on Sky Arts to our customers, and we have no doubt that this outstanding cast, in the hands of these award-winning production companies, will do just that." In addition, some of comedy’s best female talent will appear in a new six-part series sketch show, Psychobitches, which sees some of history’s most influential women psychoanalysed. Julia Davis will appear as poet Sylvia Plath, Kathy Burke as Mona Lisa and Katy Brand as Mary Shelley. The series feature award-winning writing from Simon Stephens and The Thick of It’s David Quantick, who has created a comedy about a 50-year-old unemployed John Lennon who left the Beatles.

Separately, Sky Living has ordered three projects from British female screenwriting talent to launch their 'The Reckless Season' - a strand similar to the channel’s previously announced 'Love Matters' and Sky1′s 'Little Crackers' which will showcase a number of one-off dramas that are also serving as backdoor pilots. Bonafide Films’ Gwyneth Hughes-penned Talking To The Dead is a two-part series based on the book by Harry Bingham. It tells the story of Fiona, a newly qualified detective on her first murder case, "who may be set to find out that enthusiasm can prove deadly." Kudos and Pirate co-pro Rubenesque is a one-off story written and directed by Annie Griffin (Fresh Meat). It takes an unashamedly naked look at modern women with a story that centres on a female football referee’s journey to becoming a plus size model. Red Productions’ Sally Wainwright-penned The Last Witch, is a tale of two five hundred year old witches battling it out in modern day Britain. When this powerful duo go to war, everyone else is simply collateral.
500 year old witches in modern day Britain.

The most ambitious Sky Living project is a 10-part reimagining of classic tale Dracula. Starring Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and co-produced with NBC, filming starts this summer in the hands of former Carnivàle showrunner Dan Knauf. Production bosses say Dracula - set in the Victorian era - will stay true to the classic story's time period, but with a "look to the future". It will be set in London in the 1890s, and see Dracula lead a double life as an American businessman interested in bringing modern science to Victorian society. However, his plan to exact revenge on those who ruined his life centuries earlier is derailed when he falls in love with a comely young lass who may also be the reincarnation of his dead wife. Based on a script by Cole Haddon, it will be co-produced by Gareth Neame who was responsible for ITV1's hit period drama Downton Abbey. Entertainment chairman at NBC, Bob Greenblatt, who was involved in casting Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII in the historical drama, The Tudors, said the new series would bring a Tudors sensibility to a piece of classic literature. "In the world of Twilight and True Blood and all the contemporised stories, we thought we'd go back to the original," he said.

Finally, Sky 1 announced the Bafta-nominated Mad Dogs, Left Bank's macho-skewing drama which aired on Sky1 in 2011, will return a fourth and final season of 2 episodes to allow a proper send off for the show and its characters. Max Beesley, Philip Glenister, John Simm and Marc Warren will all return in this final installment which goes into production next month and is set to air this Spring, shortly after the conclusion of the show’s 4 episode third season which arrives in April. "The foursome’s run of bad luck culminated in the series two finale as the law caught up with them in Morocco, and they’re not in a good place in the comeback episode," the Sky brochure reveals. "Enduring various forms of interrogation in what appears to be a dilapidated prison in the middle of the desert, Woody, Quinn, Baxter and Rick’s knack for attracting trouble is only set to continue. A new face has also been thrown into the mix; feisty fellow prisoner Mercedes, played by Jamie Winstone (Donkey Punch) sporting a very different look. But can she be trusted?"

Also coming back is Emmy nominated hit action series Strike Back for a fourth series of ten brand new episodes, shot on location in South Africa and Hungary. It will once again be a co-production between Sky and CINEMAX/HBO and will be produced by Left Bank Pictures. The series was commissioned and will be Executive Produced by Sky’s Huw Kennair-Jones, Commissioning Editor, Drama. Left Bank’s Andy Harries will return as Executive Producer along with Series Producer Michael Casey and Head of Production Marigo Kehoe. Also returning for Series Four are Director Michael Bassett (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D) and writers Simon Burke (Persuasion), James Dormer (MI-5) and Richard Zajdlic (EastEnders.) Additional directors and writers will be announced as they are confirmed. In addition, Strike Back's confidential consultants who work in the field of counterterrorism will return for the new series. Their expertise is a resource for story, lingo, procedure, accuracy, character development and regional issues, providing an insight to the highly secretive world of 'Black Ops.' They also train the cast in battle tactics, weapons and fighting, as the lead actors do the majority of their own stunts.

Elsewhere, The Smoke is a brand new eight part series from Kudos Film and TV written and created by Lucy Kirkwood (Skins). Based around the day to day running of a London fire station, the drama will tell the adrenaline-fuelled and gut-wrenchingly emotional stories around the crew’s working and personal lives. At the heart of the story is a family of firemen and women who, no matter what, always have each other to fall back on. But being a hero isn’t easy, especially in a world that regularly disregards them, and it certainly doesn’t pay. Many crew members are forced to hold down other jobs on the side, taking some of them into the city’s after dark world. The stakes are high but, in The Smoke, it’s the very lives and souls of the White Watch crew that are at risk. "We wanted to bring a new, modern view of heroism to Sky 1 HD," says Mensah. "The Smoke was a perfect fit. It has all the huge scale action and adrenaline that a show about fire can bring to the screen, but in Lucy’s hands there is also a beautiful depth and complexity to the characterisation. This is a show that asks real questions about what it means to be a man in today’s world."

Also coming to Sky One is Moonfleet, a new family drama adapted in two parts from the classic John Meade Falkner story. The programme will be produced by the award-winning Company Pictures and the scripts have been written by Ashley Pharoah (Life On Mars, Ashes to Ashes). Filming will commence later this year on this much loved adventure set in the small Dorset village of Moonfleet. In the story young John Trenchard is haunted by dreams of the legendary Blackbeard and captivated by the whereabouts of his fabled diamond. Desperate to join the local band of smugglers, a turn of events unites him with Elzevir, the leader of the gang. Together they embark on a danger-filled adventure to locate Blackbeard's most treasured possession. Mensah commented: "Moonfleet is one of those unusual classic titles which people have heard of but that hasn’t been done to death. This allows us to make it feel unique to Sky, to please people who grew up with the story but also to bring in a new generation of viewers who might not be so familiar with the text. And of course it is going to be a Sky drama so expect big action as well as smugglers, fights, ghosts, diamond hunting and a father/son story which should totally and unashamedly capture your heart. Huge thanks to Company Pictures and Ashley Pharoah for bringing such a fantastic story to life for us."

The same channel have also confirmed that they are developing a medical drama with Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio. The project, which is operating under the working title Critical, is said to focus on the first 'golden hour' when treatment for a serious injury can save lives.

Sky's continued emphasis on showcasing British talent is a result of the broadcaster's commitment to invest £600million in home-grown television by 2014. The newly unveiled slate will put 70 hours of drama across the company's portfolio of networks. In announcing the raft of new commissions, Mensah said: "A number of these passion projects had potential to become longer-running series. At Sky we have a strong ambition to deliver modern, original dramas that are both entertaining and intelligent. We seek to bring our customers the most innovative and bold pieces produced by some of the brightest talent in drama programming today. Our broad range of entertainment channels has allowed us to commission this diverse and rich drama slate, providing customers with a wealth of choice and I’m thrilled to be able to unveil this fantastic line up. The most exciting thing is that this is just the start of the growing drama story at Sky." Stuart Murphy, Director of Sky’s Entertainment Channels, added: "Anne’s vision for drama at Sky is very exciting; and I’m looking forward to seeing these projects come to fruition as much as, I’m sure, our customers will. These new commissions bring together world-class talent, both on and off screen, and are unique pieces of television that exemplify the scale of our ambition."
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Hits And Misses In The Nudity Debate

Hit & Miss bares some interesting questions about nudity on television, argues The Guardian's Mark Lawson. Nudity on screen can often seem unnecessary or gratuitous – but Sky Atlantic's new drama suggests this isn't always the case. A drama producer who has worked in both television and radio once said that the great benefit of working on the wireless was that there was never any hassle from actors or audiences over nude scenes. Apart from strong language, nakedness is the most frequent complaint in TV feedback forums and, in both cases, the objection is that these elements are unnecessary or gratuitous. The difference is that whereas opinions on language are largely generational – the more recent the viewer's birth-date, the less likely they are to be offended by swearing – objections to nudity are more widely shared because of changing attitudes to women on screen, often influenced by feminism.

In this context, one of the striking aspects of new Sky Atlantic drama Hit & Miss, Paul Abbott and Sean Conway's compelling drama about a transgender assassin played by Chloe Sevigny, is that it contains a moment that attempts to make the case for a full-frontal nude scene that is dramatically crucial and completely non-gratuitous.


Sevigny's character Mia, who is undergoing hormone treatment prior to the final transformative operation, stands naked in front of a mirror. The unusual complexity of this image is that the viewer is seeing male and female nakedness simultaneously, being shown genuine breasts and a prosthetic penis.

It might possibly be objected that this scene is prurient – offering up a transgender patient as a sort of freak-show – but Mia is explicitly a character tracking the transformations of her body and it is relevant to the narrative for the audience to know what she has under her clothes at this stage: the information pays off in later scenes when her long-lost son surprises her in the bath and a local lothario tries to grope her between the legs. Abbott and Conway are surely right – and Sevigny seems to have agreed – that the reveal was necessary.

Most dramas, though, can't claim such an easy absolution. In British cop shows of the 1970s and '80s, it sometimes seemed almost obligatory for the central detective to be interrupted during love-making by a call-out to a crime-scene. As he heaved discreetly out of bed – often conveniently wearing boxers or even trousers – his big-busted girfriend would walk, in the foreground of the shot, naked past him to the bathroom. Lawson's memory suggests that The Sweeney was a particular offender.

Greater sensitivity to the exploitation of women has reduced the popularity of such shots, although one contributor to the Guardian's letters page reported that he had stopped watching Homeland after episode four because of the frequent female nudity. The correspondent found these shots of women's bodies "misogynistic" and accused reviewers who admired the series of either ignoring or privately revelling in this woman-hating parade of flesh.

Lawson's view was that the other qualities of the series (acting, shooting, writing, plotting) were enough to overlook the inequalities of its costume policy. And the far greater quantity of female than male full-frontal scenes in screen drama results from something more complicated than just male chauvinism in the production process.

The standard compositions of TV sex scenes – the woman, with her breasts showing, on top of the man; or the man on top of the woman, whose breasts are showing – follow from the widely acknowledged theory that sexual arousal in men has a more dramatic visual indication than for women, and the regulatory and legal convention that erect penises are seen only in pornography or, more recently, 18 certificate movies. So, on television, if an actor is shown walking fully-naked towards a bed before a passionate love scene, application of the editorial guidelines raises distracting issues about his enthusiasm for the relationship.

But, while this excuse is true, it does also encourage lazy direction. The fact that an actor can't be shown fully naked during sex but that an actress can doesn't mean that the latter has to be. It is possible to film bedroom scenes while protecting the modesty of both participants – and certainly Homeland would not have suffered from a lower nipple count. Hit & Miss, however, fascinatingly fleshes out the debate over how naked bodies should be shown.
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