Stylish, bold and mesmerising this period piece is must-watch TV

BOLD. Super stylish. Intelligent. Luxuriously made and unhurried, it's hard to watch Capote vs Swans without reaching for hyperbole.

In an age of algorithm-inspired amphetamine-laden mass-market TV, this eight-part, eight-hour series feels like one from a bygone Hollywood era. And the cast is full of surprise delights. Tom Hollander, in yet another performance of a lifetime, Chloë Sevigny, Demi Moore, Calista Flockhart, Russell Tovey, and Molly Ringwald.

Based on the late great American writer Truman Capote and his complex friendships with his "Swans" - New York's coterie of elite Manhattan socialites - the story begins with Capote, widely considered the finest author in America at the time, basking in the glory and acclaim of Breakfast at Tiffany's and his true-crime masterpiece In Cold Blood, while privately struggling with alcohol issues and writer's block.

Meanwhile, he is cementing his status as the centrepiece of a set which includes Babe Paley, the wife of the powerful chairman of television network CBS and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and an aspiring actress and socialite, as well as Slim Keith, Ann Woodward, CZ Guest, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli and Pamela Harriman. All immensely rich, beautiful, formidable women and regulars on the best-dressed list.