With Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen getting a streaming spin-off for Netflix, Paramount+ play their own geezer-gangster card with this prequel to Jonathan Glazer’s memorably profane 2000 thriller. Set a full decade before Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley turned the air blue as Gal Dove and Don Logan, two aging gangsters on the Costa del Crime, James McArdle and Emun Elliott play younger ‘foot-soldier’ versions of the tea-leafs in this stylish, violent eight-part series.

Dialogue like ‘I’m gonna beat your granny later’, sets a scabrous tone; the opening scene, with loose-cannon Don approaching a sunbathing Gal, mimics the original precisely. We see how Gal meets his porn-star wife Deedee (Sarah Greene) and teams-up with Don to cut a swathe through the Lan-daan gangster underworld under the tutelage of Teddy Bass (Stephen Moyer stepping in for Ian McShane). Added local colour comes via new if disposable characters such as Gal’s druggie sister and Deedee’s protective boyfriend, although the stand-out is Tamsin Greig sporting a shock mullet with highlights as Don’s mentalist sister.

‘Everyone’s replaceable’ Don muses, but Greig aside, every element here is a substantial downgrade on the 2000 version. The milieu is similar (orgies, boxing rings, armoured car jobs) while needle-drops include Depeche Mode, Ian Dury, The Clash and, erm, Londonbeat’s ‘I’ve Been Thinking About You’. What’s missing is the arty sense of abstraction that elevated Glazer’s film; with increased levels of sexual and domestic violence as unwanted garnish, Michael Caleo’s try-hard series just isn’t  sexy or beastly enough. 

First three episodes of Sexy Beast are available on Paramount+ now; new episodes every Thursday.