fpb | A failure (Reply)

The BBC has made a TV movie about Winston Churchill, titled Into the Storm. Not only is it bland and poorly cast - the actor who plays Churchill comes close to parody - but they seem to have forgotten that only a few years ago they had produced a superb piece on almost the same subject, called The Gathering Storm, which everyone who is watching this one will remember, even if they don't - like I do - have a recording of it. It is literally better in every way - every way. The cast was superb, headed by an Albert Finney who damn near became Churchill, and by an absolutely magnificent Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine; staging, photography, costumes, everything was several steps above this; and the story, being focused on a few months instead of sprawling over years, had more punch. Why would they produce something that was inevitably going to look not as good as previous work?