The Singapore Grip: The ugliness of colonial snobbery laid bare

Dramatic, lush and droll, this six-part miniseries is debuting this weekend in Australia, before anyone else in the world gets to see it.

Now seems like an excellent time for a six-part miniseries adaptation of The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell’s satirical novel of British colonialists at the tip of the Malaya peninsula during World War II.

A handsome, lavishly produced series, The Singapore Grip is airing in Australia, from this Sunday on BBC First on Foxtel* and Fetch, before anywhere else in the world, including in the UK despite it being a British series. Lucky us.

The timeliness for the series, despite its 1941 setting, taps into the wider conversations about the still-present effects of centuries of colonialism and inequitable rule.

Starring Charles Dance, David Morrissey, Luke Treadaway, Elizabeth Tan and Australian Georgia Blizzard, The Singapore Grip, like the novel it’s adapted from, does its best work by not telling the audience about the colonists’ bad behaviour and superior attitudes, but showing it.

And boy, does it – at least in the first two episodes made available for review.

Spoilt and privileged

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The Blackett family live in a beautiful mansion set among sprawling grounds (the same house that was used as a location in Crazy Rich Asians). Patriarch Walter (Morrissey) is part-owner of a rubber trading company with partner Mr Webb (Dance), who lives in equally impressive digs next door.

Mr Webb appears to be a kind man and approves of his son Matthew’s idealism, which Blackett laughs off as a bit of “bad luck”.

Blackett’s son Monty (Luke Newberry) seems to have little ambition beyond drinking all night while daughter Joan (Blizzard) is keen to make a good marriage with Matthew – which makes “sense” from a business perspective.

Matthew is an outsider, having lived outside of the colony, and is introduced to the world of the privileged elite of the Blacketts and their acquaintances – dismissive of the locals, sneering at the one Brit who married a Eurasian woman and had to resign all his memberships.

Matthew is an outsider to the established social set in The Singapore Grip

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When Matthew suggests a different way forward in which workers aren’t just patronised and commoditised for their labour but recognised for their humanity, he’s told “people who’ve been here a while don’t much go in for pious homilies”.

The message is clear: Things are done a certain way in the colonies, a way in which the ruling, British classes maintain their grip on power and money, and no one else matters.

Into their lives arrives Vera Chiang (Tan), a Chinese woman Joan briefly met in Shanghai some years earlier. She has a mysterious past and Mr Webb saves her from deportation back to China (where she will face almost certain death) when the authorities equate her education with Communist sympathies.

All the while, the Japanese planes are literally circling above the peninsula as the drums of war beat louder, ready to tear apart the established order – and the seemingly inept British forces don’t seem to have it in hand.

The Singapore Grip boasts wonderful costume design

The satire in this TV version is droll, rather than uncomfortably biting, but that may escalate as the series goes on. The first two episodes are really more scene-setting, establishing the character and social dynamics.

The Singapore Grip is produced by the team behind Poldark and Victoria, while Oscar-winning director Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) penned the scripts.

Even with its social commentary, the series has an easy vibe, akin to period programs such as Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries or Mr Selfridge, and it’s a very digestible experience, especially when you also factor in the lush production design and costuming.

The Singapore Grip doesn’t quite burrow its way into your consciousness but it does enough to be perfectly diverting and surprisingly relevant.

The Singapore Grip premieres on Sunday, July 26 on BBC First on Foxtel and Fetch

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*Foxtel is majority-owned by News Corp, publisher of news.com.au