There was a time in my life when I would have been perfectly happy if it were the mid-'60s all the time.

For my 16th birthday, I wore a gold silk pencil-dress, a cream cardigan with pearl buttons, gold low-heeled mules, and my hair in a low ponytail. I forced all my friends to do the same, and we went to Johnny Rockets (where I also forced them to dance).

It's been a long time since I wore anything remotely resembling studied vintage (now I keep Supré in business), if there's one thing that makes me want to break out the Nylons and a chic chignon - not to mention a pack-a-day habit - it's Matthew Weiner's Mad Men.

My exposure to the show was initially sporadic - an episode here, a "you must watch this!" burst there - but eventually I sank into its pleasures, so the opportunity to stroll through season three was tantamount to overindulgence.



The season begins with a 'waking dream sequence'. Don, heating up some milk for pregnant Betty in the middle of the night, recalls his rather wretched entry into the world in a series of vignettes that light up around his house. It's a queasy, intoxicating way to kick things off.

We then pick up things at Sterling Cooper as they are in the midst of a British invasion: Puttnam, Powell & Lowe have bought out the ad agency and set about sacking and promoting, left right and centre.

The unctuous Pete is played off against Ken when they are both made head of accounts, Peggy is installed in copywriting (where she questions the appeal of Pepsi's new diet soda, Patio and its naff ad campaign, a rip-off of Bye, Bye Birdie), and Joan... Joan...


Ahem.

In any case, it seems the rest of the world is slowly catching up to Christina Hendricks' pneumatic charms as Joanie, and she is resplendent as ever throughout season three, dishing out sass in the office while awaiting her husband's promotion to Chief Resident at the hospital.

As season three begins, Don and Betty Draper are adrift in an uneasy calm: Betty is pregnant (with what she insists is a girl) and typically underwhelmed with everything from her figure ("I look like an opened umbrella" she says, wearing one particularly beautiful lace frock) to her inability to dance at Roger's Kentucky Derby party.

Don and Sal fly to Baltimore on business; en route they are chatted up by a plucky air hostess and end up at dinner under false names and even falser pretense.

"I'm engaged," the stewardess breathily informs Don in the hotel hallway, "you could be my last chance." Don replies, summing himself up unwittingly, "I've been married a long time. You get plenty of chances."

Before too long she is stripping to her Maidenform bra and girdle in front of Don.

Meanwhile, poor, closeted Sal - his pen leaking forlornly in his pocket - is visited by a randy bellhop, but before they can so much as get their pants off the hotel fire alarm goes off. As Don climbs down the fire escape, he's greeted by the harried gay tableau in Sal's room and stares - shocked? Vindicated? Looking for a drink? Who knows.

On the plane back home, Don asks Sal if he can ask him something; Sal steels himself for the inevitable interrogation, but Don instead throws some campaign ideas at him. Sal is relieved, though it's unclear if Don is being gentlemanly or just work-obsessed.

The rest of the season takes off at a cracking pace from there, working in - as ever - notable historical events such as the demolition of New York's Penn Station (Paul enrages Madison Square Garden's "people" when he expresses his distaste at the idea, holding up a poster that reads in red, bold type: "RAPE ON 34TH STREET") and, eventually, the assassination of JFK.

Even Peggy gets amongst it when, in a rather nice wink and a nod to The Breakfast Club, she, Paul and Smitty are forced to work overtime on a Bacardi campaign:



Oh, and hang around long enough this season and there's this moment:



Glorious fashion, Joan, endless whorls of cigarette smoke, old fashioneds and gimlets, and even a bit of splatter - what more could you ask for in a show?

Just settle in, pour yourself a double, and drink it aaaall in. What Would Don Draper Do?

Mad Men season three premieres Thursday at 8.30pm on Movie Extra (encore screenings at 4pm Saturday), Foxtel.