Chivalry Steve Coogan

Sienna Miller, Wanda Sykes, and Aisling Bea also star in the new comedy-drama.

Chivalry grants the audience permission to laugh while asking complex questions that as a society, we often find hard to discuss." Chivalry starts Thursday, April 21 on Channel 4 at 10pm. Called Chivalry, the new series offers a fresh look on gender politics.

Channel 4's comedy-drama is a refreshingly mature and nuanced take on the post-MeToo film-making industry.

Still, the funniest line in the first two episodes − an aside by Cameron about Paul Rudd − could have been lifted straight from Ricky Gervais’s Extras and is nothing to do with sexual inequality. He also voices his concern that the dialogue in the scene isn’t sufficiently respectful to women. Bobby also has a serious speech about the need for on-set intimacy coordinators: “Because the men who had the power to stop women being abused chose not to. Cameron looks alarmed when Bobby utters the c-word, but she calmly informs him: “That is an acceptable slang term for a woman to use to describe female genitalia. Bobby Sohrabi (Sarah Solemani) is the right-on film director drafted in to reshoot the sex scenes in his latest film and make them less objectionable to a female audience. We celebrate Hanukkah and Thanksgiving.” Miller is one of several fun cameos in the series, along with John C Reilly and Paul Rudd.

The sheer audacious scale of the comedy drama's near-pornographic presentation and profane language is the only thing that threatens to overwhelm the ...

I don’t know whether, in the age of Naked Attraction, Babestation and Nadine Dorries, there are or should be any boundaries around what is seen and heard on TV. But I think Chivalry has helped me find my own boundaries as a viewer. The dialogue in Chivalry is basically an amalgam of barrack-room swearing, porn-movie set directions and the sort of intimate technical terms you might encounter during a gynaecological case conference. Is it still OK? Should the emphasis in the scene be on the pleasure of the Nazi officer (soon to meet his little and bigger death), thus objectifying the woman? The problem with Chivalry isn’t the topical themes, the dry, witty writing or the wonderfully world-weary pairing of Coogan and Solemani. Both have rather cynical, hard-bitten, direct sorts of personalities, despite their divergent outlooks and origins. We also learn that Cameron has slept with the film’s female lead, a French resistance “honey pot” agent, played by Sienna Miller. She conveys the sour energy of someone who finds the whole ethos of her profession demeaning, while simultaneously rebelling against it. The producer, Cameron O’Neill (Steve Coogan), himself somewhat compromised by outdated attitudes, is told to sort it out.

Solemani and Coogan - who co-wrote the series - are fantastic in this tongue-in-cheek, bold take on the film industry in 2022.

#MeToo isn’t an obvious source of humour, and Chivalry never reached for the low-hanging fruit of mocking the movement. The success of Chivalry hinges entirely on the push-and-pull chemistry between Solemani and Coogan, and I could watch their bickering for hours. How does one, for example, make a sex scene in a safe, secure way, and have it still be believable?

The series, written by and co-starring Steve and Sarah Solemani, is set to shine a light on the 'sexual politics in the wake of the #MeToo movement.' Chivalry, ...

There will be six episodes in total, with the series finale due to air on May 26. The series, written by and co-starring Steve and Sarah Solemani, is set to shine a light on the ‘sexual politics in the wake of the #MeToo movement.’ Steve Coogan plays Cameron, and Sarah Solemani takes on the role of Bobby.

The sheer audacious scale of the comedy drama's near-pornographic presentation and profane language is the only thing that threatens to overwhelm the ...

I don’t know whether, in the age of Naked Attraction, Babestation and Nadine Dorries, there are or should be any boundaries around what is seen and heard on TV. But I think Chivalry has helped me find my own boundaries as a viewer. The dialogue in Chivalry is basically an amalgam of barrack-room swearing, porn-movie set directions and the sort of intimate technical terms you might encounter during a gynaecological case conference. Is it still OK? Should the emphasis in the scene be on the pleasure of the Nazi officer (soon to meet his little and bigger death), thus objectifying the woman? The problem with Chivalry isn’t the topical themes, the dry, witty writing or the wonderfully world-weary pairing of Coogan and Solemani. Both have rather cynical, hard-bitten, direct sorts of personalities, despite their divergent outlooks and origins. We also learn that Cameron has slept with the film’s female lead, a French resistance “honey pot” agent, played by Sienna Miller. She conveys the sour energy of someone who finds the whole ethos of her profession demeaning, while simultaneously rebelling against it. The producer, Cameron O’Neill (Steve Coogan), himself somewhat compromised by outdated attitudes, is told to sort it out.