Netflix just made all 3 seasons of 'addictive' period drama available to stream
The ITV period drama Harlots has a Vincent Van Gogh category of TV reputation, as a show never properly appreciated in its time, but held in tremendously high esteem by those that did tune in.
Starring Lesley Manville, Liv Tyler and Samantha Morton, the show is set on the streets and in the brothels of Georgian England in the 1760s, as two warring madams battle it out.
It's an age-old tale of David and Goliath, with the upstart Margaret Wells (Morton) jostling for custom against the established Lydia Quigley (Manville).
Yet nobody is covered in glory on the sex-for-sale scene. Quigley doesn't care whether her girls live or die if she can curry aristocratic favour, while Wells is prepared to sell her daughters' virginities to the highest bidder.
Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you.
Harlots has a twisty plot and scenes that blend 18th century history with modern touches to an effect that fans of the now-cancelled The Great will relish.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The frothy drama was a short-lived three-season affair on the similarly short-lived channel ITV Encore. Manville has chalked up the show's struggle to gain traction to being squirreled away in the schedules (via RadioTimes).
The BBC then picked up Harlots in 2020, treating the existing seasons to the primetime slot they deserved in order to fill the schedule amid a TV shortage during the pandemic.
Manville has said she would be very much up for a fourth season of the show, after its untimely conclusion.
'I'd always be interested – obviously I'd be interested,' she said during a press event. 'I had nothing but a pleasurable time doing all three series, and it was one of those blissful jobs.
'I'd definitely [give] that a lot of consideration but it's certainly not something that's been talked about.' More Trending
The show's three seasons – which are now all available on Netflix –currently hold a 97% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with a set of glowing reviews from critics and audiences alike.
A review in Black Girl Nerds described the show as 'an addictive and binge worthy' watch, while a write-up in Time magazine said: 'Come for the strong female-driven storylines and stay for the truly memorable costumes.'
Meanwhile, The Times hailed it as a 'riotous period drama' and The Guardian said it was 'obscenely watchable'. Walk, don't run.
View More »
Harlots is available to stream on Netflix.
Got a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
MORE: Major WWE SmackDown spoilers as iconic star returns on Friday's episode
MORE: Ranvir Singh reveals terrifying side effect she developed when drink was spiked
MORE: Women's Euro 2025 TV channel schedule: How to watch every game in the UK
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
a few seconds ago
- Scotsman
Film reviews: Freakier Friday
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Freakier Friday (PG) ★★☆☆☆ The Kingdom (15) ★★★★☆ Another week, another legacy sequel. This time it's Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan trotting out a belated follow-up to their 2003 body swapping box-office hit Freaky Friday, itself a remake of the third most famous Jodie Foster film of 1976 (after Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone). In the Lohan/Curtis version, Lohan played angsty teen to Curtis's overly critical psychoanalyst mother, with the body swap shenanigans helping resolve the former's resistance to her mother's impending nuptials and the latter's despair at her daughter's pop star ambitions and mild teen rebellion. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in Freakier Friday | Glen Wilson Freakier Friday picks up the story in real time, with Lohan's Anna now a single mother with a teenage daughter of her own (played by Julia Butters, who went toe-to-toe with Leonardo Di Caprio as the precocious child actor in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), and Curtis's Tess on hand with all manner of passive-aggressive parenting advice. The body swapping twist comes when Anna falls for the British father of her daughter Harper's school nemesis, Lily, a newly arrived English rose whose elitist personality rubs this dungaree-wearing surfer-girl up the wrong way (Sophia Hammons plays Lily; Manny Jacinto — from Netflix show The Good Place — plays her dad). With neither daughter of this soon-to-be-blended family happy about what their parents' marriage will mean for their futures, some spiritual jiggery-pokery from a psychic on the weekend of the wedding results in Harper and her mum switching bodies and Lily trading hers, not with her dad (that would be too problematic for a Disney film), but with Harper's grandmother Tess. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The latter perhaps justifies the 'Freakier' part of the title, but doesn't make a lot of sense beyond providing a way to centre Curtis as its star. That also means Curtis gets most of the best scenes, with Lohan relegated to straight woman, thanklessly sandwiched between Curtis's Lily-as-Tess freaking out about suddenly having 'crevices' in her face and peeing at inopportune moments and the Gen-Z Butters and Hammons (inhabiting the newly liberated spirit of their elders) cramming junk-food into their faces like they're in a kid-friendly remake of The Substance. There are a couple of funny lines (Facebook is described as a datastore for old people) and Curtis in comedy mode is always good value. But a lot of the humour is very bitty, dependent on pratfalls, groaning intergenerational misunderstandings, and comedians in small roles throwing jokes at a wall to see which ones will stick (very few of them do). It also relies on a lot of call-backs to that dim-and-distant first film, yet lacks the elegant simplicity of that film's plot. The result is an overly busy film that's short on actual laughs and a lot less fun to watch than the cast — per the end-credits blooper reel — clearly had making it. The Kingdom | Contributed From The Godfather to The Sopranos, the domestic realities behind organised crime are a staple of movies and TV shows about the mob, so all credit to slow-burning Corsican crime film The Kingdom for finding an intriguing new way to explore the skewed work-life balance of this heightened dynamic. Rather than zeroing in on the patriarchal head of a crime syndicate, writer/director Julien Colonna focuses instead on said gangster's teenage daughter, making a film that combines the dreaminess of a coming-of-age movie with the hard-hitting violence of a gangster film — like The Godfather if it had been directed by Sofia Coppola rather than Francis. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Set in 1995, it revolves around 15-year-old schoolgirl Lesia (newcomer Ghjuvanna Benedetti), who's not at all happy when the languorous summer holidays she plans to spend flirting with local boys in the Corsican seaside village she resides in with her aunt is rudely interrupted by her estranged father, Pierre-Paul (Saveriu Santucci), summoning her to stay with him in a secluded villa with only a bunch of middle-aged, out-of-shape henchmen for company. Though it's not clear at first how much Lesia knows about the family business (the film is good at depicting the veil of ignorance that all kids have about their parents' actual lives), as news reports filter in about a series of assassinations in which Pierre-Paul might have been the intended target, the hushed conversations she witnesses between her father and his men help her put two-and-two together and their planned bonding time soon evolves into a father-daughter road trip to escape the police and, more importantly, the rivals circling Pierre-Paul's cloistered kingdom. Of course, the opening shot of Lesia never leaves us in any doubt about where this is all going (it involves her being bloodied in a hunting ritual). Nevertheless, the film's patience in letting us experience this world through her eyes makes the violence much more forceful when it does come. Benedetti, meanwhile, is superb — her face a quiet study in innocence corrupted as her father's regretful choices seep into her by osmosis, hardening her to a life she's fated to follow.
The Herald Scotland
a few seconds ago
- The Herald Scotland
Wednesday season 2: Netflix release time, cast and more
The second season will see the return of Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Death of a Unicorn and Scream) as Wednesday Addams. While fellow cast members, including Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams), and Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair), will also be back for the new season. They will be joined by new faces like Joanna Lumley (Grandmama Hester Frump), Steve Buscemi (Principal Dort), Billie Piper (Isadora Capri) and Christopher Lloyd (Professor Orloff). Ahead of the release of Wednesday, season two, we have rounded up everything you need to know, from how season one ended and the new-look cast, to the upcoming episode titles and whether or not there will be a season three. How did season 1 of Wednesday end? (SPOILERS) The first season of Wednesday remains the most-viewed English-language series on Netflix of all time. The finale saw Wednesday Addams (Ortega) confirm her suspicions that Tyler (Hunter Doohan) is the Hyde terrorising Nevermore Academy. She also discovers the hidden identity of Tyler's master - Marilyn Thornhill, aka Laurel Gates (Christina Ricci). Wednesday eventually wins out over the pair and saves Nevermore. Season one ends with Ortega's character driving away from school with her family, armed with her very first mobile phone. In the last scene of the finale, she receives multiple texts from an unknown contact. "The Stalker" sends a few photos of Wednesday with her love interests, a Memoji-style gif of a Wednesday avatar being stabbed in the head, and a text reading, 'I'm watching you.' Short recap of 'WEDNESDAY' Season 1! Season 2 Vol.1 releases in 3 weeks on August 6! — Wednesday (@WednesdaysDaily) July 16, 2025 Ortega, speaking to Netflix's Tudum, said: "We ended Season 1 with a stalker that was still after me. Tyler has been sent to a psych ward, and half the school is burnt down. 'We start off Season 2 with Wednesday being kidnapped.' What time does Wednesday come out on Netflix? Fittingly, part one of Wednesday, season 2, will be released on Wednesday (August 6). The first four episodes of Wednesday (season 2), which make up part one, will be available to watch in the UK on Netflix from 8 am. Part Two will be released on September 3, 2025. When does Netflix release shows? What to expect in the new Wednesday series? In the new season, Wednesday Addams (Ortega) must "navigate family, friends, and old adversaries, propelling her into another year of delightfully dark and kooky mayhem", Netflix explains. Armed with her signature razor-sharp wit and deadpan charm, Wednesday is also plunged into a new bone-chilling supernatural mystery. Co-creators, showrunners, and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, speaking to Tudum, added: "Wednesday goes into this season thinking she knows Nevermore. 'But as soon as she returns, nothing happens the way she's expecting. "She thinks she's going to be in control, that she knows where all the bodies are buried, but she doesn't. "Nothing is what it seems in Season 2.' Episode titles The episode titles for part one of Wednesday, season 2, have also been revealed: Episode 1: 'Here We Woe Again' Episode 2: 'The Devil You Woe' Episode 3: 'Call of the Woe' Episode 4: 'If These Woes Could Talk' WATCH: Sneak peek at the first 6 minutes of Wednesday season 2 Wednesday (season 2) cast The season two cast for Wednesday will feature: Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams Victor Dorobantu as Thing Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams Joanna Lumley as Grandmama Hester Frump Joonas Suotamo as Lurch Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Ottinger Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus Noah B. Taylor as Bruno Evie Templeton as Agnes DeMille Steve Buscemi as Principal Dort Billie Piper as Isadora Capri Christopher Lloyd as Professor Orloff Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Sheriff Ritchie Santiago Jamie McShane as Sheriff Donovan Galpin Owen Painter as Slurp Thandiwe Newton as Dr. Rachael Fairburn Heather Matarazzo as Judi How old was Jenna Ortega in Wednesday? Ortega was born on September 27, 2002, which means she is currently 22 years old. Filming for Wednesday took place primarily in Northern Ireland between April and November 2024, according to Deadline. This meant Ortgea was 21 when she began filming season two of Wednesday, and 22 when it came to an end. Jenna Ortega is back as Wednesday Addams. (Image: Jonathan Hession/Netflix/PA) Will there be a Wednesday season 3? Wednesday has already been renewed for a third season, Netflix has confirmed. Co-creator and showrunner Alfred Gough said: '[Co-creator and co-showrunner] Miles [Millar] and I have been doing this long enough to know that shows like this don't come along every day. "It's such an alchemy of writing, directing, acting, crew, streamer, studio, and fans. "We remain grateful and excited to continue this journey and tell these stories with all of our partners.' Netflix said season three promises to go "even further, on every level". RECOMMENDED READING: Gough continued: 'Our goal for Season 3 is the same as it is for every season: to make it the best season of Wednesday we possibly can. 'We want to continue digging deeper into our characters while expanding the world of Nevermore and Wednesday.' Miles Millar added: 'We will be seeing more Addams Family members and learning more family secrets in Season 3!'
Daily Mail
a minute ago
- Daily Mail
Loose Women star GK Barry breaks her silence on brutal ITV cuts as she praises the show for giving women a voice
Loose Women star GK Barry has broken her silence on the upcoming ITV cuts and has revealed whether viewers can expect to still see her on their screens. It was revealed back in May that the show has been axed for half of the year and Lorraine's runtime has been slashed by 30 minutes, as Daytime bosses announced cuts with job losses in excess of 220. According to insiders, once ITV's budget cuts come into effect in January, Loose Women will no longer have A-list guests in the studio, and the broadcast is planned to only consist of the panel debating newsworthy topics from the week. Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, GK Barry, real name Grace Keeling, has revealed she has no plans to leave the show. The 25-year-old explained: 'I think so, I think I'm still on. I'm pretty sure I'm still there. Obviously the cuts are such a shame, but I'm very glad that Loose Women is still able to be on because I think it's so important to have a women-led show on.' Grace is the youngest ever panellist to appear on Loose Women and was born in the year the ITV daytime show started. Reflecting on her time on the show since joining in 2024, Grace added: 'I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified on my first episode. 'I was like, "None of these women know me, are they gonna think I'm weird," but hand on heart, they are the loveliest women I have ever met in my life. They are so welcoming, and it's just such a fun show. 'I think it's important to have a show on the telly that is all women-based, and it's one of the few that is. The audience are amazing. They always give it large, and you get to speak your mind and no one judges you for it, which is nice.' 'People believe it's just women arguing, but every time I've had a differing opinion on the panel, they're just like, 'that's cool,' no one's had a problem with it.' The influencer has seen her career skyrocket since jetting off to Australia last November for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Grace finished in fifth place and was evicted on day 20 of the competition, while McFly's Danny Jones went on to win the ITV show. The presenter has now revealed her latest venture away from her TV commitments. The host of the Saving Grace podcast has collaborated with Echo Wines to create a Limited Edition Summer Berries bottle. Chatting about her partnership with Echo Falls, Grace explained: 'It is so iconic. It was my go-to drink at uni before going out, and I thought I know my audience are going to love this.' Elsewhere, Grace is once again taking her popular podcast Saving Grace to venues across the UK as part of a Jungle Fever Tour special. The show promises a 'night of feral fun' with gossip, special surprises, and celebrity guests. Grace has also been focusing on charity work nd recently visited C9 the Teenage Cancer Trust ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital. She was joined by girlfriend and professional footballer Ella Rutherford to meet cancer staff and bring joy to young people on the unit. Grace went viral after she shared a video showing off what she really looked like behind the glamour of carefully edited Instagram - and it sparked a trend of other influencers doing the same. The video racked up almost 94,000 likes, and social media users from around the world then began replicating the video and using her voiceover to expose how they actually look when posting online. She soon gained a huge following and within a year, had amassed a whopping one million followers on the video-sharing platform. At present, she now has a huge 4.1million followers on TikTok and an impressive 1.8million fans on Instagram. Cambridge-born Grace went on to create her own podcast, Saving Grace, in April 2022 and has interviewed numerous celebrities including Coleen Nolan, Olivia Bowen and Alan Carr. In early 2024, GK took the podcast, which is also uploaded as a vodcast on YouTube, on a sold-out tour around the country.
