Mayfair Witches review: You’ll recognise the Devil by his mullet – it’s the hairdo from Hell! writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

Mayfair Witches (BBC 2)

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Slow Horses (Apple TV+)

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Stands to reason that the devil has a sinful hairstyle. In early Hollywood horror movies, Satan wore his locks slicked back with Brylcreem.

But these days, Lucifer sports a mullet. Short at the front, swept back over the neck… truly, the hairdo from Hell.

We can tell that the Dark Lord with the Bon Jovi look is a demon, not a vampire, in the gothic U.S. romantic drama Mayfair Witches (BBC2). For a start, he can float into young women’s boudoirs uninvited, which was always a problem for Dracula. And when he’s there, he appears in the mirror.

Clearly, the usual defences of crucifixes and garlic are not going to keep him at bay. If telepathic teenager Deirdre (Cameron Inman) wants to fend him off, she’s going to need something more drastic. I suggest scissors and an electric shaver. Give Beelzebub a buzz cut, that’ll send him packing.

Deirdre, of course, doesn’t want to send him packing. She’s been brought up by sadistic nuns in a gloomy New Orleans mansion. The devil is her ideal boyfriend.

This eight-part series is based on the novels by Anne Rice, who also wrote Interview With The Vampire. And there’s a lot going on — in fact, it’s pandemonium.

Gothic US eight-part series Mayfair Witches is based on the novels by Anne Rice, who also wrote Interview With The Vampire 

The drama stars Alexandra Daddario (pictured) who by day works tirelessly as a paediatric surgeon, saving children’s lives

While Lucifer, who calls himself Lasher (Jack Huston), is seducing 1990s Deirdre by luring her to an orgy at her uncle’s house, in the present day, an older Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) is sitting catatonic on the porch of her mansion, gazing in a blank-eyed stupor.

A doctor comes to visit her but it’s fair to say these are not the most exciting scenes of the episode. You’ll see more action on the test card.

In another city, Deirdre’s daughter Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) is now grown up, living on a houseboat where she drags men for one-night stands. 

By day, she works tirelessly as a paediatric surgeon, saving children’s lives — she can safely venture out in daylight, remember, because she’s the offspring of the devil, not a vampire.

Daddario, best-known for The White Lotus, specialises in characters who are not so much highly strung as completely crazy but trying to hide it. 

She’s perfect casting for Rowan, who has a diabolical gift: when men act like chauvinist pigs, she can visualise the arteries in their brains and make them pop.

Her victims clutch their temples and drop to the floor with blood spurting from their ears. Rowan has to do this quite a lot, because most men in the Deep South are irredeemably sexist.

But at the rate she’s killing them off, it won’t be long before only a few woke ones remain.

Gary Oldman stars in Apple TV+ Slow Horses. The spy thriller is based on the bestselling novels by Mick Herron

Oldman alongside Kristin Scott Thomas with the spy thriller now in its third series. Veering from slapstick to brutal violence, Slow Horses is picking up pace with a well-crafted plot

Veering from slapstick to brutal violence, Slow Horses (AppleTV+) is picking up pace with a well-crafted plot, based on the novels by Mick Herron. 

Spy thrillers too often unravel after strong starts, but this one is holding its shape well.

Incompetent secret agent River (Jack Lowden) suffered a protracted beating at the hands of MI5 thugs, but was able to hobble away, wincing. 

Freddie Fox, on the other hand, as the insufferable ‘Spider’ Webb, was killed with a single punch by rogue spy Sean Donovan (Sope Dirisu, who was trying to go easy on him — in Gangs Of London, he regularly killed several henchmen with one blow).

These sequences are in sharp contrast to the scenes with bickering spies Shirley and Marcus (Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan), who irritate each other so much, they’ll inevitably end up married.

Gary Oldman, as their unsavoury boss Jackson Lamb, enjoyed a verbal match of wits with the Home Secretary, played by Sam West — both stars goading each other to the top of their game.

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