There’s more than workplace sexual politics at stake in this tale of harassment, porn and misogyny: this excellent drama is about the reality of women everywhere
Hot on the heels of her harrowing turn as the protagonist of Anne, ITV’s drama about the grieving mother of a Hillsborough victim who spearheaded the campaign to uncover the true causes of the catastrophe, Maxine Peake delivers another barnstorming performance in Rules of the Game (BBC One).
This four-parter, by Ruth Fowler, uses the conventions of a murder mystery to examine the evolution (or otherwise) of sexual politics in the workplace. Peake plays Sam, the hardbitten manager of a family-run sportswear business, Fly Dynamics. Friends with the sons of the founder (Owen and Gareth Jenkins, played by Ben Batt and Kieran Bew) all her life, Sam has worked there since she was 16 and is revered and feared. The brothers are on the verge of taking the company public when Sam discovers a body – unidentified for the first episode and beyond – on the foyer floor. It has been propelled there from the second floor balcony.
