PrimeWire

“Once upon a time, children, there was a BBC Two documentary called The Countess and the Russian Billionaire. It told the story of Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, who fell in love with an oligarch called Sergei Pugachev who was very good friends with a man called Vladimir Putin until he wasn’t. If you were adults, children, you would know already how this story was likely to go. But you still would hardly believe it as it unfolded before you.

We open in 2015 with the countess – her father is a distant cousin of Leo himself – showing us round her gorgeous Chelsea home. Well, homes. They bought the equally enormous townhouse next door, too, on a whim, and knocked through, and thank goodness they did because now she, her Chanel handbag collection and Sergei have one pad, and their three children can make their mess in the other. “It’s a really fun way to live,” Alexandra explains, without moving her lips. At first I thought she had a special member of staff, on top of the nannies, driver, PA, housekeepers and French teacher to speak for her, but no – she is simply a perfect example of an English aristocrat with a trait you often see imitated and mocked but rarely in the original, whereby all movement above the neck has been bred out.

For the first few minutes, this is the most fascinating thing about the story. But then the programme begins its transformation into a fabulously compelling, soapy drama requiring of the viewer only that he or she settle yet more firmly down on the sofa and prepare to cry: “WTF!” at increasing volume and ever shorter intervals.”
—from theguardian.com