James Walton

Subtle, psychologically twisty drama: BBC3’s Bad Behaviour reviewed

Plus: the answer so far to the question ‘what’s not to like?’, about Sky Atlantic's The Lovers, is a slightly sheepish ‘nothing really’

Mean girls: Portia (Markella Kavenagh) leading her hench-women in Bad Behaviour. Credit: BBC/Matchbox Pictures  
issue 09 September 2023

Bad Behaviour is a decidedly solemn new Australian drama series with plenty to be solemn about. It was billed in Radio Times as ‘slow-burning’ – which feels a little tactless, given that the opening scene featured a girl in a boarding-school dormitory setting herself on fire (and burning quite quickly). We then cut to the same girl, Alice, ten years later looking surprisingly well as she gave a cello performance in a venue where the catering staff included a fellow ex-pupil called Jo, who greeted her warmly. Perhaps understandably, though, Alice was reluctant to reminisce about the old days at Silver Creek.

It’s one of those shows where you can’t help imagining what was said in the pitching meeting

From there, the programme flashed back to the school on the day in 2012 when both arrived as scholarship girls for what the headmaster ironically assured them would be a year they’d never forget.

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