The second series of Kingdom has begun on ITV in the UK and the first series is now available on DVD. Episode one of the second series aired last week, and can be seen here if you missed it.
Kingdom is about a lawyer with a small country practice. Stephen Fry plays Peter Kingdom, a softly spoken gentle man who collects waifs and strays, and looks after them all. He seems to be able to navigate his way through all the chaos they bring with them, although he is sometimes reduced to slamming his office door shut just to keep all the noise out.
In the first series his brother, Simon Kingdom, has apparently committed suicide by walking into the sea, leaving Peter to look after his dog and their law practice on his own. His sister Beatrice, played by Hermione Norris, is a tortured soul with manic tendencies who decides to move in with him and reorder his life and his work place. He is pursued by nuisance clients wishing to bring pointless and hopeless cases to court, and by bad guys chasing him for his brother's debts. His trainee would rather be practicing law in a large city firm than in a one-man rural office, and his personal assistant seems to be mostly stable, or as stable as anyone can be with their odd collection of clients and sister Beatrice wreaking havoc around the place.
This show is both funny and sad, and has that feel-good factor that makes for great TV. Stephen Fry's Peter Kingdom is very convincingly, and you can't help but like him.
