Creating a satire about the #MeToo movement in Hollywood sounds like it would be a project fraught with peril and pitfalls that could annoy and offend in equal measure.
After all, this is the industry that gave us Harvey Weinstein and more than a century of systemic sexism, so what’s funny about that?
On the other hand, you might think that what “woke” Hollywood has put in its place, like the new role of intimacy co-ordinators who monitor who’s doing what during sex scenes, is beyond parody, so what’s the point?
Chivalry (Channel 4), to its credit, threads the needle pretty perfectly, skewering both the old way of doing things and the post-#MeToo film industry.
The two eras of Hollywood are represented by stars Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani, who also wrote the series. Coogan plays Cameron, a film producer who may not have crossed the threshold of criminality like Weinstein did, but nevertheless has had his fair share of affairs with a string of young assistants and actresses.
A dinosaur, in other words, whose definition of “touchy-feely” is markedly different to Solemani’s character Bobby, a film director hired to reshoot “problematic” sex scenes in a movie that has lost its defiantly sexist director.
If you have been watching Coogan as Alan Partridge for the last 30 years, you’ll definitely detect something Partridge-esque in his portrayal of a man adrift. “You can’t even describe people with adjectives anymore,” he laments.
Thankfully, Solemani’s character isn’t here to be Cameron’s humourless scold. She too struggles with #MeToo, at one point roping in Cameron to distract the intimacy co-ordinator so that she can get an actor to undress.
It may be a thorny topic, but Chivalry is a hugely enjoyable watch.