Glamour On And Off The Screen

Among the biggest draws to The Undoing, the Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant thriller that’s been providing an essential dose of glossy autumn lockdown escapism, are the gloriously aspirational homes the wealthy New York characters live in.

The apartments and townhouses offer a glimpse into the privileged world of Manhattan private school parents – top doctors, psychiatrists, lawyers and financiers – and have property obsessed viewers (like me) making boggle-eyed square footage calculations whenever a new super-prime home appears on screen.

Now, the glamorous five-storey townhouse that stands in as Grace and Jonathan Frasers’ (played by Kidman and Grant) family home has come up for sale with Sotheby’s International Realty – with a suitably eye-watering price tag.

On New York’s ultra-exclusive Upper East Side, near Central Park, the nine-bedroom house has an asking price of £22.7 million.

The 10,000sq ft property was given a colourful makeover for the show, with a red-painted kitchen and exposed brick wall giving it a more lived-in, family look, in keeping with Grace Fraser’s expensive bohemian, Pre Raphaelite-inspired wardrobe and tumbling copper curls.

Upstairs, Grace and Jonathan’s bedroom suite has sumptuous floral-patterned wallpaper and vibrantly coloured furniture.

In reality, the house at 8 East 63^rd Street was built in 1878 to a neo Classical English-style design by CPH Gilbert for a prominent lawyer named Joseph Hodges Choate.

Other prominent residents who once lived on the street include Woolworth, Bloomingdale and Oscar Hammerstein and the facades of the houses in various architectural styles reflecting the grandeur of the past inhabitants.

The interiors are neutral yet plush with huge windows and period features from the six fireplaces and square staircase, to the herringbone solid wood floor and ceiling moldings.

The drawing room has gold accents on the chairs, the coffee table and the sofa cushions, while a library — shelves currently stocked with books bound in shades of greige — is accessorised with brown suede furniture.

The first-floor dining room has a terrace and a butler’s pantry leading off it and there are two duplexed staff rooms which share a terrace. There is also a home fitness centre and a back garden.

The Undoing airs in the UK on Monday evenings at 9 pm on Sky Arts and Now TV.