Welcome to 18th-century England, where polite society is anything but polite.

Against a backdrop of political unrest, a devastating pox outbreak and the Jacobite uprising, Sir Chauncey Savage (Richard E. Grant) and his formidable wife Lady Savage (Claire Foy) are aristocrats with expensive tastes, dwindling finances and an increasingly precarious position in society. Their grand country house may suggest wealth and privilege, but behind its doors the Savages are struggling to maintain appearances.

Their fortunes appear ready to change when they learn that the influential Duke and Duchess of Devonshire are coming to visit. Determined to seize the opportunity to climb the social ladder, Chauncey and his razor-sharp wife embark on an increasingly outrageous campaign to make the Savage household appear every bit as prosperous, fashionable and respectable as their distinguished guests might expect.

New clothes are ordered, silver is polished, servants are hired and their crumbling home is hurriedly transformed. But keeping up appearances comes at a price, and as their ambitious plans gather momentum, events descend into a gloriously chaotic mixture of deception, decadence, duels and bloodshed.

Starring Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, Savage House is a wickedly dark British period comedy that takes aim at class, privilege, ambition and the absurd lengths people will go to in order to appear more important than they really are. Stylish, mischievous and deliciously irreverent, it proves that beneath the powdered wigs and fine clothes, polite society can be very savage indeed.

RATING: 15