Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 7 August

Julia (Goldfarb, 2022-23)

Show after show these days seem to be post-apocalyptic retro-futuristic dystopias, hunts for true crime serial killers, taming dragons or brand name sci-fi epics.

Yet, the most purely entertaining show we have watched in this new ‘golden age’ of streaming TV was The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, a comedy about a Jewish single-mom building a career as a stand-up comic in 1960s New York. Five seasons of joy!

When I read about Julia, a lighthearted series based on the unlikely TV career of “French” chef Julia Childs, I hoped it would give me some more of that Maisel-verse.

Well, despite having about half the budget, Julia definitely scratched that itch and it was a great way to end every troubled week for the last few months.

English actress Sarah Lancashire leads as Julia Child – a role made famous to recent viewers by Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia (2009) – and like Streep she manifests the voice and physicality of this 2m tall woman but unlike Streep she gives us the uncertainty and vulnerability of a woman breaking new ground.

Despite the show having a sitcom vibe to it – each episode is named after a dish and the hijinks in the kitchen are very much part of the charm – many of the characters are based on real people. Like Mrs. Maisel, the ensemble is a key part of the show’s charm.

Significant real people, in fact. Child’s agent, Judith Jones (Fiona Glascott) not only shepherded Mastering the Art of French Cooking into bookstores but also discovered Anne Frank’s diaries in the Knopf slush pile, and edited Camus, Sartre and Updike.

Her producer, Russ Morash (Fran Kranz) thought he was slumming it with cooking and wanted to make civil rights documentaries but went on to invent the modern home renovation show with This Old House.

Other recurring characters are David Hyde Pierce, as devoted husband Paul, and behind-the-counter volunteers Avis De Voto (Bebe Neuwirth) – destined to become a successful cooking editor in her own right – and new mom Dorothy Zinberg (Lindsay Broad), who would go on to teach at Harvard Medical School.

Another unsung woman in the show – although fictional this time – is Brittany Bradford as Alice Nayman, determined to break down the walls of prejudice that prevent women’s stories from being given air time.

Actually cooking and eating the food in the show each week would probably prove just as lethal as the content of any of the more hard-boiled dramas streaming at the moment but the pleasure in the company of nice, well-mannered, decent and optimistic people counteracts all that cream and sugar.

I’m sorry there are only two seasons.

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Where to watch Julia