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A Discovery of Witches: season two episode 1 review - as charming and bonkers as Blackadder

Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode star in the Sky drama 
Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode star in the Sky drama

From Shakespeare in Love to Upstart Crow, Elizabethan England has long cast a spell over film and television. So when season two of Sky’s solidly silly supernatural romance A Discovery of Witches (Sky One) splashed down in the hey nonny nonny land of statement ruffs and Catholics hiding in attics, it was with an overpowering sense of familiarity. You kept waiting for Walter Raleigh to walk in, glowering from behind a pantomime beard.

And then he did walk in. In this universe – adapted from the bestselling Deborah Harkness novels – he’s a member of a esoteric secret society and a close friend of vampire Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode). Matthew, by coincidence, had just returned to the Elizabethan era from the present day, where he had struck up a love affair with Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer), a Yale graduate, Oxford doctoral student and reluctant lady sorcerer.

That was a lot to keep track of as the series staged a winningly outlandish return after a two year hiatus. And that was before factoring in the Inquisition-like "Congregation" which is pursuing Matthew and Diana across time. Not to mention Matthew’s side-hustle helping hunt fellow Catholics. Plus, Tom Hughes – dreamy Prince Albert from ITV’s Victoria – had joined the cast as "Kit", aka boozy playwright Christopher Marlowe.

It’s Blackadder the Second, minus the fart jokes then. And yet the fact everyone involved was taking the silliness seriously added considerably to the charm. If making an absurd time-travel romp featuring witches, Elizabethan fashion and a dodgy CGI rendering of the original St Paul’s Cathedral, there really is no option but go all in.

The Matthew-Diana romance continues
The Matthew-Diana romance continues

The one thing the opening episode lacked was a fast-moving storyline. This was forgivable. The new backdrop of Elizabethan London – season one was set in contemporary Oxford  – and a vast array of characters left little room for a zig-zagging plot

That was unlikely to trouble fans of the novels. They tend to be as invested in the Matthew-Diana romance as in the convolutions between witches, vampires and daemons (a tribe that includes Christopher Marlowe). Here there were parallels with Jacobite bodice ripper Outlander, though A Discovery of Witches was far less racy. A teasing glimpse of Matthew’s armpits as he lay in bed with Diana was about as scandalous as it got.

When not flashing his arm-pits, Matthew spent most of his time walking around the surprisingly filth-free streets of pre-industrial London looking pale (he was a vampire after all). Diana, meanwhile, chaffed at being asked to play the part of his obedient wife. And blabbermouth Marlowe was already spreading news of their arrival all over town.

The real headline though was that Discovery of Witches had lost none of its ludicrous qualities in the long wait between seasons. Enthusiastically bonkers, it made for perfect New Year hokum.