TV review: The House of Guinness is all pour, no pint

'If it’s pitched as a cross between Succession and Peaky Blinders, then it lacks the comedy of the former and the jeopardy of the latter'

Anthony Boyle in Netflix' House of Guinness

The House of Guinness (Netflix) has a lot going for it.

It’s created and written by Stephen Wright, aka Mr Peaky Blinders. The cast includes James Norton, Dervla Kirwan, Anthony Boyle, and Michael McElhatton. It’s about the Guinness family.

It just doesn’t add up to the sum of its parts. We join the story with the funeral of Benjamin Guinness (son of the the original Arthur) in 1860s Dublin. 

His four children are scheming to get their share of the spoils, which include the brewing business and Benjamin’s seat in Westminster.

If pitched as a cross between Succession and Peaky Blinders, then it lacks the comedy of the former and the jeopardy of the latter.

James Norton plays Sean Rafferty, an enforcer-thug who will stop at nothing to ensure the Guinness family gets it way, as long as the price is right. His Dublin accent is so good, he sounds like soccer pundit Richie Sadlier. 

This is as impressive as it is annoying as I keep waiting for him to launch an attack on the blazers in the FAI. Some of the other O-Irish accents aren’t so Richie Sadlier. 

That won’t make a difference to viewers in Wisconsin, but it spoils it for the locals because a bad accent screams “I’m an actor and this is all made up”.

The story is made with a view to an overseas audience. A major plot line involves two Fenians, brother and sister, who have vowed to take down the Guinness dynasty due to its protestant and unionist affiliations. 

That’s fine as a back-drop, but the characters are shallow and obvious, she’s devious and strategic, he’s thick and pig-headed, you’ve seen it before.

Add in some leaden dialogue — ‘giving me money is like giving me a loaded revolver’ — and you get a patchy drama that jumps from badly-lit scene to badly lit scene without building any intrigue.

There are some badly-lit bright spots. The character who churns out the revolver line is Benjamin Guinness Jnr, played by Fionn O’Shea of Normal People fame, who has the kind of face you’d expect in Peaky Blinders.

There just aren’t enough interesting faces. It’s all a bit vanilla. The main sibling, Arthur, is played by Anthony Boyle. He’s not given half enough to do here, unless he felt stretched by the line, ‘I am half-consumed by the flames of hell’.

Opulent and dramatic, beefed up with explosions and music by Fontaines DC and Kneecap. All the boxes are ticked. Except the one marked entertainment.