Too late to signal this to anyone -

[fpb]

- but anyone who cares for good acting and production could not afford to miss the re-run of THE GATHERING STORM, the BBC's bio-pic about Winston Churchill before the war. Sir Albert Finney virtually resurrects Winston Churchill, Vanessa Redgrave (of all people!) is sublime as Clementine, their depiction of a crotchety but loving old married couple is marvellous, and they are surrounded by a supporting cast that many studios in Hollywood would kill for - Ronnie Barker, Linus Roache, Jim Broadbent, Tom Wilkinson, Derek Jacobi, Celia Imrie. I am watching it as I write, and it is breathtaking.

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I didn't see this. Because I was watching it too. Awesome acting, saw it the first time. Finney was never better. He WAS Churchill.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

What about Ronnie Barker as his manservant, eh? Showed what a fantastic actor he really was. And Linus Roache as the doomed young man from the Foreign Office... just marvellous. As for Finney, when he is good, he is very good; when he is bad, he stinks. His Poirot was the only really bad thing in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which was otherwise one of the two best Agatha Christie movies ever done (the other is WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION); one would love to see some kind of electronic trickery replace him in all his scenes with David Suchet, leaving the rest of the movie the same. But here, some kind of over-acting was called for - and he was great. How about the scene when he has made Clementine mad and he begs to be let back in? Man, that was acting...