“If you see me sober, I ain’t awake,” George Jones slurs at an adoring Grand Ole Opry crowd at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The audience laughs and cheers him on. Moments earlier, Jones’s team has been forced to slice through the hinges of a toilet door to pick up the incoherent singer, taping his knees straight so that he couldn’t fall down before marching him to that stage. But, once he’s there, he slots right into his king of country role, powder blue suit sparkin’ under the spotlights.
This is the opening scene of George & Tammy (available now via Paramount+ in the UK and Showtime in the US), the latest show to mine country music for its low-down dirty dogs, fabulous costumes and high drama. This one is a starry miniseries/biopic that tells the story of Jones, also known as Possum (for his marsupial features, though I can never hear that word in a voice that doesn’t belong to Dame Edna Everage) and his eight-year marriage to one Tammy Wynette, the most tragic of all the female country stars. Michael Shannon plays Jones as a man tortured by drink and self-doubt, while Jessica Chastain – who, after The Eyes of Tammy Faye, must have it in her contract that she plays a person named Tammy at least once a year – tackles the last three decades of Wynette’s complicated life. It’s a bit Star Is Born, a bit Walk the Line, and while it isn’t quite a No 1 hit, it deserves to be in the top 10 for at least a little while.
