Have you watched The Borgias?

If the answer is no, I am going to make the same recommendation I made years ago: please correct this immediately.

Jeremy Irons being magnificently Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia. François Arnaud stalking through Renaissance Italy as Cesare. Holliday Grainger somehow making Lucrezia look increasingly formidable while wearing enough silk, pearls and embroidered velvet to bankrupt a minor principality.

What more do you need?

The series ran for only three seasons, from 2011 to 2013, and I remain offended by this fact. It was lavish, melodramatic, murderous, occasionally ridiculous and extraordinarily beautiful. In other words, exactly the sort of television I am genetically programmed to enjoy.