Succession meets Peaky Blinders in House of Guinness ...Middle East

Guinness is almost universally loved. It’s nigh impossible to walk into any British pub and not see someone supping on a pint of The Black Stuff. Trust me, I’ve done my research. But according to Steven Knight’s new Netflix series House of Guinness, that wasn’t always the case.

The eight-episode drama kicks off with the 1868 funeral of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the first Lord Mayor of Dublin and the man responsible for making his family brewery a household name. As his funeral procession makes its way through the city, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood – a group of Irish men and women fighting for independence – attack the convoy, only to be brutally quashed by the Guinness family’s enforcer, Sean Rafferty (Happy Valley‘s James Norton, who has gone back to his villainous roots). 

The opening is typically intense and anachronistic of Knight(the fisticuffs are soundtracked by Kneecap’s “Get Your Brits Out”), the man responsible for Peaky Blinders, SAS: Rogue Heroes and A Thousand Blows. And while the death of the man who made Guinness great might be the logical ending of a story for less ambitious writers, Knight uses Benjamin’s demise as an intriguing jumping-off point.

Benjamin had four children – Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn), and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea), none of whom seem particularly cut up about the departing of their dear father. Perhaps because his death makes them the richest people in Ireland… depending on what he’s left them in the will, of course.

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It’s tempting to paint House of Guinness as a Succession-esque story of who will prove themselves worthy of the Guinness name and fortune. Yet, there is not really any question over who will take over the business – that’s all squared away within the first episode: Arthur and Edward will share responsibility, while Benjamin (the youngest) and Anne (a woman) inherit next to nothing. The twist here is that Arthur has no interest in becoming the boss, yet the stipulations of his father’s will prevent him from selling his shares.

The rest of the series pivots around actual historical events – Arthur’s attempt to stand in an election, Anne’s philanthropic work with the poor post-famine – but factuality is a mere framework for Knight to play with. Much more interesting are the forays into the rumours surrounding the Guinnesses, from Arthur’s sexuality to Rafferty’s dalliances with more than one of the family.

But there are political and social elements that Knight can’t ignore, namely the plight of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to bring Ireland out from under the iron fist of the English. Benjamin Sr was a staunch unionist, and his children have followed suit – the older men even speak with an affected English accent. It’s their tussles and alliances with sibling leaders Patrick (Seamus O’Hara) and Ellen (Niamh McCormack, who is a revelation) that propels the series forward – even if we do know how that all shakes out in the end.

There’s a very good argument to dismiss Knight’s work as too same-y. And yes, House of Guinness does bear the same hallmarks that made Peaky Blinders such a TV behemoth – the rollicking soundtrack, the swaggering anti-heroes hiding their emotions under a mask of hyper masculinity, the push and pull between the down and out everyday folk and the capitalists who would throw them under the bus. Some may have tired of this boisterous schtick – but I’m certainly still on board.

Comparisons to Peaky Blinders are inevitable, but House of Guinness is a self-contained, captivating drama on its own merit. At the very least, it’ll tide us over until we finally get that Tommy Shelby movie we’ve been promised.

‘House of Guinness’ is streaming on Netflix

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