Pam & Tommy: Lily James 'a triumph' as Pamela Anderson in new series

Former Downton Abbey actress Lily James' transformation into Pamela Anderson is a "triumph" in a new series about the Baywatch star, critics say.

James appears in Pam & Tommy, which tells the story of how Anderson and husband Tommy Lee's sex tape became the first viral video in the mid-1990s.

The British star's portrayal is "an outright triumph, both of acting and of special-effects make-up", Variety said.

She succeeds in "making Pamela less of a caricature with each episode", the magazine's critic Daniel Fienberg wrote.

James modifies Anderson's "helium-voiced coo and her overtly sexual posture to reveal the young woman from Ladysmith, British Columbia, whom Hugh Hefner and a red bathing suit turned into a sensation", he added.

However, the reviewer noted: "I'm not sure you should feel too comfortable with a Pamela Anderson image reclamation project from which Pamela Anderson doesn't stand to benefit in any tangible way."

The real Pamela Anderson hasn't been involved in Pam & Tommy, which will be on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK from early February.

She hasn't commented, but a source recently told Entertainment Tonight that she had found it "very painful" and that it was "shocking that this series is allowed to happen without her approval".

James recently said she had unsuccessfully tried to get in touch with Anderson, and her "sole intention was to take care of the story and to play Pamela authentically".

Variety's critic Daniel D'Addario wrote: "In resisting the urge to reduce its leads to symbols, Pam & Tommy is a surprisingly gentle corrective to a world that's treated Anderson, especially, as one for decades."

He also said James plays Anderson "as a congenital optimist who grows chastened and weary as each seeming chance to push beyond the red swimsuit evades her. Tommy perpetually wants to amplify, to react; Pam is a force for deliberation and calm."

Lee, the drummer with heavy metal band Motley Crue, is played by Sebastian Stan.

Empire's Terri White praised the "unapologetically heartfelt" script from Robert Siegel, as well as the "unforgettable lead performances" from Stan and James.

She gave the series four stars, but said the knowledge that Pam & Tommy has been made without Anderson's co-operation "makes watching all eight episodes - as well-crafted and insanely watchable as they really are - uncomfortable".

White said she felt a "tug in the belly as you watch a drama about the removal of a woman's consent, made without the woman's consent".

David Craig of the Radio Times agreed, awarding the series just two stars and writing: "The show succeeds in its purported goal of earning sympathy for Anderson, but in doing so undermines its existence even further as a story told without her approval.

"Perhaps the show could help change attitudes among those still seeking out intimate leaked images, but so far it seems too busy revelling in its own debauchery to say anything especially powerful," he added.

Lee and Anderson married in 1995 and the eight-part series focuses on the theft of their home-made tape, which was put online in the early days of the internet.

Writing in The Wrap, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong said the show "would fall apart if James and Stan didn't inhabit Pam and Tommy with as much charisma as the stars they're playing and the empathy necessary to make us feel for people whose images have tended toward the cartoonish".

She added: "You believe in Pam and Tommy's love and humanity, which is the key to the whole thing, and exactly what was lost in the judgmental and pearl-clutching coverage of the sex tape at the time."

The series was described as "a fun, just-judgemental-enough thrill ride from start to finish" by Digital Spy's Tilly Pearce.

"It may have a coat of gloss to reality that could paint a bedroom, but hey, that's Hollywood for you, and that doesn't mean some of the gritty bits weren't left in for extra bite. Just maybe not quite enough," she said.

Awarding the series three stars, The Evening Standard's Katie Rosseinsky said the series "applies our post-MeToo understanding of consent and slut-shaming to a Nineties cause célèbre".

"Is re-hashing the story in this way just another form of exploitation?" she asked. "Pam & Tommy is certainly entertaining, but it might still leave you feeling a bit grimy afterwards."