| Genre: | Drama Thriller |
| Creator: | Ruth Fowler |
| Director: | Jennifer Sheridan |
| Composer: | Edmund Butt |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Episodes: | 4 |
| Producer: | Simon Meyers |
| Cinematography: | Milos Moore |
| Runtime: | 60 mins. |
| Company: | The Forge |
| Last Aired: | [1] |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Channel: | BBC One |
Rules of the Game is a four-part British television drama series, written by Ruth Fowler. It stars Maxine Peake as a sportswear executive who deals with the fallout of an employee's shocking death in her company's office building. It aired on BBC One from 11 to 19 January 2022.[2]
Sam (Peake) is the chief operating officer at a family-run sportswear business in Northern England. When an employee turns up dead in the foyer, seemingly by suicide, Sam is forced to reflect on the company's problematic culture and events stretching back an entire decade, and another death.
Fowler was inspired to write the series by the Harvey Weinstein scandals. The series was filmed in Manchester, the north west of England and also in Frodsham.[3]
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian awarded the first episode four stars out of five, praising the writing and its weaving together of commentary and mystery elements, and dubbed Peake's work 'another barnstorming performance'.[4] Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph also gave it four out of five stars, calling the show 'high on entertainment value'.[5] Ed Cumming from The Independent gave the first episode two out of five stars, claiming 'the script and performances have all the subtlety of a boss’ hand up a skirt at the Christmas do.'.[6]