Juno Temple’s Lucy Savage steps off the boat in 1955 Tangier expecting a storybook wedding and finds her fiancé Hugh Skinner’s Hugo more interested in protocol than passion. While Lucy ricochets between opium dens, brothels and diplomatic soirées, Yumna Marwan’s Cherifa, a sharp-tongued Moroccan sex worker, sizes up the American as both mark and mirror.
The six-part series, shot in sun-bleached Andalucía and a Manchester soundstage, stitches together three of Anaïs Nin’s erotic vignettes into one arc of colonial unravelling. Secretary Pierre Vaney (Jean-Marc Barr) stamps visas for a living; Contessa Mandrax (Rossy de Palma) trades morphine for secrets; Lili von X (Nina Sosanya) hosts parties where passports matter less than who’s willing to undress.
Anne Nikitin’s score mixes mint-tea strings with radio static, keeping time with a city that knows its days as a playground for expats are numbered. Sophia Al-Maria, writing all but the finale, keeps the camera close to perfumed necks and bruised egos, letting the viewer piece together who is using whom before the Moroccan independence movement closes the gates.
Sky Atlantic aired the full series over four weeks in August 2020, then quietly cancelled it, leaving Lucy’s final cigarette to curl into the warm night air without closure.
Production Details
Sky Atlantic / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2020 - Present
Created by: Sophia Al-Maria
Writer(s): Anaïs Nin, Sophia Al-Maria
Producer(s): Ruth McCance Peter Carlton
Main Cast
Juno Temple as Lucy Savage
Raphael Acloque as Adham Abaza
Jean-Marc Barr as Secretary Pierre Vaney
David Costabile as Grant Savage
Amy Landecker as Vanessa Savage
Yumna Marwan as Cherifa Lamour
Matt Lauria as Bill
Hugh Skinner as Hugo Cavendish-Smyth
Fady Elsayed as Aziz
Kamel Labroudi as Leo
Rossy de Palma as Contessa Mandrax
Nina Sosanya as Lili von X
