The week in TV: Mary & George; The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson; The Gentlemen; Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice – review

The ‘coldly magnificent’ Julianne Moore, right, and Nicholas Galitzine as scheming mother and son in Mary & George. Photograph: Sky UK

Mary & George (Sky Atlantic/Now)
The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson (Channel 4) | channel4.com
The Gentlemen (Netflix)
Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice (BBC One) | iPlayer

I must caution delicately minded viewers of Sky Atlantic’s new seven-part breeches ripper Mary & George to have some smelling salts at the ready: it’s nothing if not spicy. Created by DC Moore (Temple, Killing Eve) and based on Benjamin Woolley’s book The King’s Assassin, it’s inspired by the real-life story of Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore, with a pristine English accent). A lowborn, steely-eyed adventuress who ascends via wealthy husbands (the first, played by Simon Russell Beale, expires within minutes), Mary turns 16th and 17th-century social climbing into a deadly art form. “If I were a man and I looked like you, I’d rule the fucking planet,” the anti-matriarch hisses at her beautiful second son, George (Nicholas Galitzine). Her scheme: to pimp him out to James I of England/James VI of Scotland (Tony Curran), who has a yen for “well-hung boys”.