The White Lotus

Cultural clashes and biting satire: What to expect from The White Lotus series three

What would you do if your prestige HBO drama won huge audiences and five-star reviews all round? You probably wouldn’t kill off the fan favourite, the one who embodies all its comedy and tragedy in a performance of genius that revived her career at a stroke. Especially when she also happens to be one of your best friends.

But you’re not Mike White, you didn’t write The White Lotus and, although we’d all like to be, you’re not best friends with Jennifer Coolidge.

Torture, a scuba diving bag and Brazilian beats: inside Utopia, the show everyone loves and no-one remembers

Fiona O'Shaughnessy stands indoors, looking off to the side, unsmiling

Less than a minute into the first episode, a man is dead before he hits the floor. His assailant steps around the body, in time for a colleague to ask a terrified comic book shop worker:

“Where is Jessica Hyde?”

A lethal game of cat and mouse ensues when the Network – a shadowy organisation hellbent on decreasing Earth’s population – begin to hunt down the ordinary people in their way.

Jason Isaacs and Michelle Monaghan among cast announced for The White Lotus series three

Headshots of Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Dom Hetrakul, Leslie Bibb and Parker Posey

Leslie Bibb (Jupiter's Legacy), Dom Hetrakul (Bangkok Dangerous), Jason Isaacs (Lucis Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise), Michelle Monaghan (True Detective), Parker Posey (Lost in Space) and newcomer Tayme Thapthimthong will be joining the returning Natasha Rothwell for the Thailand-based instalment.

Filming will take place in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, where the drama will follow a new group of guests at another luxurious White Lotus resort.

Sky CEO Dana Strong on Succession and satellite dishes

Matthew Garrahan, Financial Times: Sky was primarily a satellite business. You’ve moved aggressively into IP. Are you turning off the satellite dishes any time soon?

Dana Strong, Sky: It’s a key strategic pillar for us to move on to a new, IP-based platform and this year we literally blew the satellite dish up in our TV commercials.… Seeing where the trends in consumption were going, we wanted to ensure consumers had choice…

Trouble in paradise: unpacking The White Lotus

White privilege, sexual identity and racial dynamics were among the themes served up alongside the infinity pools and swanky cocktails at an uber-luxurious Hawaiian hotel in the first season of Mike White’s lacerating satire, the Emmy-garlanded The White Lotus.

In season two, which began at the end of last month, the location switches to sun-soaked Sicily. Once again, we are in the company of a group of rich Americans holidaying in a luxury hotel and trying their hardest to make paradise work for them.

The White Lotus reopens in Sicily in heated trailer for series two

Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge is back as the rich and volatile Tanya, visiting The White Lotus Sicily for another "memorable time" with her now husband Greg (Jon Gries). Although judging by the trailer she is suspicious that Greg might be cheating on her.

Joining her are a new bunch of pesky, privileged vacationers, including Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe's married couple Harper and Ethan Spiller, who are double dating with Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Cameron Babcock (Theo James), and the Di Grasso family made up of F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Adam DiMarco.