Your Friends And Neighbours (Apple TV+)

In the 90s, as paediatrician Dr Doug Ross, George Clooney helped ensure the brilliant US medical drama ER was appointment-to-view telly. 

In 2015, Jon Hamm emerged from an award-winning eight-year stint as Mad Men’s suave, slippery 60s Madison Avenue ad exec Don Draper. 

It came despite his shocking hazing past – he is alleged to have ‘tortured’ fraternity initiate Mark Sanders at the University of Texas in Austin, causing him to drop out. 

He was arrested for alleged ᴀssault in 1993 but the charge was dismissed and he completed a period of probation. 

But his later stardom, in spite of this, meant I ᴀssumed he was heading for a version of George Clooney’s career.

Separated in age by a decade (Clooney turns 64 this week), both were/are absurdly handsome square-jawed ‘old school’ leading men who eventually found respective TV fame in their 30s after determination and luck saw them overcome hitherto second-division careers.

In 2015, Jon Hamm (pictured in Your Friends And Neighbours) emerged from an award-winning eight-year stint as Mad Men’s suave, slippery 60s Madison Avenue ad exec Don Draper

Afterwards, Hamm (pictured in Your Friends And Neighbours) popped up in Bridesmaids, Baby Driver and Top Gun: Maverick – other people’s films

However, the media landscape shifted entirely in the years between ER and Mad Men. 

Graduates of 90s TV megahits ER and Friends automatically looked to make movies; cinema had more cred, more cash and one Academy Award nomination trumped a handful of Emmys.

But while Clooney ‘graduated’ apparently effortlessly from telly to huge box-office hits such as the Oceans series and producing critically acclaimed movies like Argo, Hamm popped up in Bridesmaids, Baby Driver and Top Gun: Maverick – other people’s films.

In the increasingly fragmented and streamer-dominated TV landscape even his meatier roles (in Landman or Fargo) never impacted global audiences the way Draper did. Fair to say, his career was at best Clooney-lite.

He’s long overdue a lead role in which his brand of dark under-bellied charisma is utilised to the max, and now that he’s found one I want to shout about it – though I concede it can be annoying to read about shows on streamers to which you don’t subscribe, as his new show, Your Friends And Neighbours, is on Apple TV+.

Anyway, Hamm is Andrew Cooper, a H๏τsH๏τ finance guy leading an expensive middle-class American life – big house, fast cars, beautiful wife, kids, school fees, country club membership, yada-yada. 

After his wife (Amanda Peet) has an affair with his best friend and their marriage ends, ‘Coop’ moves into a rental, works all hours to keep the family in the manner to which they are accustomed and has fractured relationships with his teenage son and daughter. 

After a night spent with a younger colleague – breaking corporate rules – he loses his job and swiftly discovers he despises the gross materialism of a life he’d previously loved. 

Though arguably not quite as much as he despises his ‘friends’ and neighbours.

In the increasingly fragmented and streamer-dominated TV landscape even his meatier roles (in Landman or Fargo) never impacted global audiences the way Draper did

He’s long overdue a lead role in which his brand of dark under-bellied charisma is utilised to the max, and now that he’s found one (pictured) I want to shout about it

Coop’s sardonic voiceover lists the price of everything owned by those who value nothing: ‘Scotch, cigars, smoked meats, custom golf clubs, high-end escorts… entire industries built to cash in on the quiet desperation of rich, middle-aged men.’

He gleefully turns to burglary to keep up appearances, and the unfolding ‘journey’ is pitched entertainingly between Breaking Bad off-shoot Better Call Saul and the backstory of Jason Isaacs’s White Lotus character.

It’s great to see Hamm spotlit again. Meanwhile, other than persuading elderly US Presidents to stand aside, what’s Clooney up to these days?

Your Friends And Neighbours 

By Vicki Power 

Since Mad Men finished ten years ago, Jon Hamm has kept a pretty low profile. 

He’d been lavished with praise and awards for his portrayal of suave but self-destructive ad man Don Draper, yet instead of capitalising on his status as Hollywood’s H๏τtest actor Hamm took supporting roles in TV series such as The Morning Show, Fargo and Texas oil-boom drama Landman.

But now he’s back with a bang in his first leading-man TV role since he hung up Don’s beautifully cut suits. 

In Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbours he grabs the spotlight as Andrew ‘Coop’ Cooper, a hedge fund manager who lives a gilded life in New York’s wealthy commuter belt until everything unravels.

When we meet Coop his ex-wife Mel has already ditched him for a professional athlete, but in the opening episode he also loses his job after sleeping with a colleague, and comes up with a desperate way of paying the bills – stealing from his rich neighbours. 

Since Mad Men finished ten years ago, Jon Hamm has kept a pretty low profile. Pictured: Your Friends And Neighbours 

He’d been lavished with praise and awards for his portrayal of suave but self-destructive ad man Don Draper, yet instead of capitalising on his status as Hollywood’s H๏τtest actor Hamm (pictured in Your Friends And Neighbours) took supporting roles

Read More The plush suburban rehab where Jon Hamm recovered from booze and hazing shame

‘No one would ever suspect a guy like me,’ says Coop in the show. ‘I’m not saying it was a good idea, it was just a quick fix. And I figured, what’s the worst that could happen?’ 

He soon finds out. His invasions of his former friends’ houses also see Coop drawn in to their dirty secrets. 

It gets so dark that in the opening flash-forward scene we see Coop lying in a pool of blood that belongs to the corpse next to him in what we ᴀssume is one of these neighbours’ homes.

Though bearing similarities to hit dramas such as Big Little Lies, Your Friends & Neighbours doesn’t revel in the materialistic lifestyles of affluent Americans. 

Instead, it’s a darkly cynical look at the superficiality of rich people locked in an endless cycle of aspiration and conspicuous consumption. 

‘It does all feel like it could be very tenuous and meaningless,’ muses Jon, 54. ‘So what does it really mean if it all could go away in the blink of an eye?’

He says he chose the role because it fitted his post-Mad Men strategy of avoiding parts that were too Draper-esque. 

Despite his matinee-idol looks he didn’t want to play square-jawed heroes, opting instead in recent years for a scary sheriff in Fargo, Jennifer Aniston’s flawed love interest in The Morning Show and an oil tycoon in Landman.

It plants reluctant leading man Hamm (pictured in 2015) firmly back in the spotlight

‘I know I look like I should be that guy, but I wanted to do different things instead of just being a leading man, whatever that is,’ he says. 

‘And I don’t know how different my career would have been, but I know it hasn’t been the traditional leading-man thing. Maybe it’s because I’m a little more quirky.’

The fact that Apple TV+ have already renewed Your Friends & Neighbours for a second season is a huge vote of confidence in the show. 

And best of all, it plants reluctant leading man Hamm firmly back in the spotlight.