Any TV drama remotely concerned with Britain's imperial adventure in India invites comparison with the superlative The Jewel in the Crown, the 1984 Granada miniseries based on Paul Scott's magnificent Raj Quartet novels. Channel 4's Indian Summers, which starts on BBC First (DStv channel 119) on Sunday, is no exception. Happily, though, it holds its own against Jewel rather well.The 10-episode first season details the events in the summer of 1932 at Simla, a town in the cooler Himalayan foothills where a group of British socialites and colonial service types seek respite from the subcontinent's stifling heat each year.It is here, or more specifically at the Royal Club, an expat resort ("No Indians or dogs allowed") run by the blowsy and boozy Cynthia Coffin (the wonderful Julie Walters), that the Raj's ruling elite can escape the hurly-burly of imperial service in the East with a bit of high jinks and intrigue that includes murder, racism, blackmail, jealousy, interracial sex, torrid love affairs and illegitimate children.Much of it revolves around three pairs of siblings. Ralph Whelan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), politically ambitious secretary to the viceroy, is joined by his sister Alice (Jemima West), who appears from England with her son. Her husband is mysteriously and scandalously absent. Then there's Aafrin Dalal (Nikesh Patel), a clerk whose fast-tracked course through the Indian civil service is jeopardised by his sister, Sooni (Aysha Kala), a pro-independence activist. Finally, there are the wealthy Americans Eugene and Madeleine Mathers (Edward Hogg, Olivia Grant) who are Ralph's guests at Simla.Elsewhere, there's young a Scotsman (Alexander Cobb) whose reprobate uncle has ruined a tea plantation through alcohol and neglect; a missionary couple, Dougie and Sarah Raworth (Craig Parkinson, Fiona Glascott), whose marriage is threatened by a sultry half-caste teacher (Amber Rose Revah); and, of course, the viceroy himself (Patrick Malahide).Ever-present in the background of all this gloriously colourful, intelligent series is a whip-smart analysis of the colonial endeavour.At Simla, Cynthia's guests may escape the scorching heat of the low-lying provinces - but certainly not the seething contempt of their Indian "subjects". Off camera, meanwhile, Gandhi is busy with a hunger strike in prison, the consequences of which will reverberate at Simla.A second and final season of Indian Summers, set in 1935, aired in the UK in March this year. Hopefully it follows soon after this season...