Mad Men - Telly Talk

Telly Talk: "Who is Don Draper?" asked the reporter from Advertising Age. Good question. Who is Don Draper?

Well, it's all a bit confusing, especially if you last saw Mad Men on BBC 2 because the geniuses in the corporation's scheduling department have repeated series one, not bothered to repeat series two and series three, and have instead jumped back in with series four.

Who is Don Draper? Last time we saw him it was the early 1960s, he was married to Betty, living in a beautiful home in the New York suburbs, at the top of his game at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency and bedding just about anything in a skirt. Here was a man who could teach Warren Beatty how to pull.

Flash forward a few years and Draper's Midas touch seems to have deserted him. He's living in a cheap-looking apartment while Betty and her new husband are living in that beautiful suburban home (which Don's paying for); the sure touch at work has gone off a bit (he can't sell a bikini advert campaign to an overly-prudish swimwear firm and throws them out of the office in frustration); and even that sure touch with women isn't what it was: they don't jump into his bed like they used to, and Don's even paying a prostitute to slap him in the face.

Who is Don Draper? A whole army of psychologists would struggle to answer that one.

As usual, things are not what they seem. Everything looks right and glossy on the surface, but beneath it's a different story. Even the Advertising Age reporter turns out to have only one leg. "They're so cheap they can't even afford a whole reporter," scoffs Roger Sterling, Don's partner in the agency.

Roger is one of the constants in Don's life, a fairly unpleasant little man who drinks, smokes, chases women and earns a comfortable living without actually appearing to do anything.

Office manager Joan (dress by Sears; bra by Isambard Kingdom Brunel) is another constant, still running the agency with brisk efficiency, and smary, creepy, smug junior partner Pete Campbell is, without a shadow of a doubt, still the single most punchable little runt on God's good earth. Bar none.

Meanwhile, the show's attention to detail remains as perfect as ever. The clothes, the fashions, the prehistoric attitudes are all there. Even Peggy Olsen, the junior copywriter, is put firmly in her place when she tries to attend the meeting with the bikini firm trying to find a new way to sell their products to women. "Better not have a girl in the room," Don tells her.

So who is Don Draper? God only knows, but we've another three weeks of perfect television to find out.

*Mad Men is on BBC2 all this week at 11.20pm.