The TV show that has bewitched America has finally arrived on this side of the sea - 'American Horror Story: The People Versus OJ Simpson' will debut tonight on BBC Two.
This real-life drama will do one of two things, depending on what age you are. If you can remember where you were when US TV stations cleared their schedules to track OJ Simpson's desperate but strangely low-speed flight along Highway 405 in a white Ford Bronco, then this will be a completely indulgent wander down memory lane, to a time when the names Johnny Cochrane and Marcia Clark tripped off the tongue and you stopped breathing while you waited to see if the glove did, in fact, fit.
OJ Simpson surrounded himself with a group of defence lawyers that the media dubbed 'The Dream Team'
For younger viewers, this will be a research project to discover which social shell cracked, before the Kardashians emerged from it. Faithful followers of the K- clan will know that the older girls have a much-loved, much-missed late father Robert. From this story will they finally put together the jigsaw pieces - that Robert was also the best friend of football star, actor and bona fide American hero OJ Simpson, one of his 'dream' defence team, and one of his most tireless champions throughout his trial.
Even if none of this interests you in the slightest, the show is still worth watching, by all accounts, for the scenery-chewing John Travolta's work as defence lawyer Robert Shapiro.
Who are the other big players in this exquisitely told, extraordinary chapter in American culture? And how accurately have they managed to cast their on-screen counterparts? Read on...
