TV Pick of the Week: The Residence - review by Yvette Huddleston

President Perry Morgan (Paul Fitzgerald) and his husband Elliot (Barrett Foa) are hosting a state dinner for a delegation from Australia in an effort to repair damaged relations between the two countries. The evening’s is slightly derailed by the inconvenient discovery of the body of the White House chief usher AB Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) lying by the pool table in the games room on one of the upper floors in the private quarters of the First Family.

Enter Uzo Aduba as brilliant detective Cordelia Cupp who has a reputation for solving complex crimes that flummox others and she is a keen bird watcher which has served to sharpened her phenomenal observational skills. Patience is another of her many strengths and a quiet self-confidence that means she won’t be rushed – she does everything at her own pace and in her own style which includes making copious handwritten notes and sketches in her lovely leather-bound birding book. The president’s team assemble which includes the director the FBI and various secret service agents plus a couple of his closest advisors. “How many dudes to you need?” sighs Cupp under her breath. The dudes want a quick solution and easy explanation – suicide is suggested – but Cupp knows this is murder. She won’t be intimidated and requests that the guests downstairs are informed they cannot leave until the case is solved.

We are then introduced to a range of interesting characters, many of whom had a potential motive to kill AB Wynter. Among them are deputy usher Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson) who was in line for Wynter’s job until he announced he had decided against retiring; a disgruntled Swiss pastry chef, the president’s chief advisor and friend Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino) seen rifling through Wynter’s papers, a butler threatened with dismissal.

Adding extra colour are the president’s embarrassing brother Tripp (Jason Lee), a freeloading kleptomaniac, and the First Gentleman’s alcoholic mother (Jane Curtin) who stays in her room, avoiding everyone and ordering decanters of vodka to be delivered to her at regular intervals. And there’s also a lovely cameo from Kylie Minogue, playing herself. Pure escapism, plenty of laughs and carefully-plotted intrigue with pitch-perfect performances from all concerned, this is a real tonic.