New to Vibe in September

Fans of cosy British dramas will think they’ve hit the jackpot with next month’a return of The Syndicate on Sky’s Vibe channel.

Season four of the Kay (Fat Friends, In the Club) Mellor series, about the workplace fallout from a staff syndicate winning a big lottery prize, will screen 8.30 Thursdays from September 9.

The cast includes Neil Morrissey (Men Behaving Badly, Line of Duty), Kym Marsh (Coronation Street), Gaynor Faye (Emmerdale) and Katherine Rose Morley (Thirteen, Last Tango in Halifax).

“Now in its fourth series, Kay Mellor’s show is like a candlelit bath – warm, comforting and good for the soul,” raved The Guardian

“Its lightness of touch is part of its appeal, and it is a reliably quippy, witty show. While it is never too demanding, it is regularly satisfying.”

“The female characters in Mellor’s dramas are usually smarter than the men,” said The Daily Telegraph. “The whole thing feels light, but Mellor weaves in emotional truths.

“And it makes a pleasant change when every other drama these days involves a murder investigation.”

But the Independent thought the characters weren’t believable and it “glossed over” serious issues with “gentle soapy melodrama“.

Also new next month on Vibe will be season four of Outlander (8.30 Wednesdays from September 8) and Medici: The Magnificent (9.40 Thursdays from September 9).

The latter is a 2019 Netlflix drama about the powerful Italian banking dynasty during the Renaissance starring Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), Sebastian De Souza (The Great) and Sarah Parish (Broadchurch).

“More hysterical than historical, chronological accuracy obviously goes out the stained glass window – the Medicis were apparently not quite as cat-walk ready as suggested here – and the acting is broader than a matinee pantomime in early January,” the Telegraph quipped.

“Yet as a soap opera in a fancy cape it is an unexpurgated hoot.”