Stonehouse ITV
Discussion
Was looking forward to this series, particularly as I am old enough to remember the events at the time.
However, I was disappointed in the way it was portrayed on the screen, I thought it should have been titled “Carry on being a Pompous Baffoon”. The dialogue, music and acting felt like I was watching an episode of The Pink Panther, plenty of bad accents, hamming and implausible actions.
Hopefully it will improve and get a little more serious in further episodes. At least there were a couple of Classic Cars to keep me interested.
However, I was disappointed in the way it was portrayed on the screen, I thought it should have been titled “Carry on being a Pompous Baffoon”. The dialogue, music and acting felt like I was watching an episode of The Pink Panther, plenty of bad accents, hamming and implausible actions.
Hopefully it will improve and get a little more serious in further episodes. At least there were a couple of Classic Cars to keep me interested.
I thought it was rather good. It's clearly a comedy drama and not meant to be an overly accurate portrayal of events. He's played as a bumbling fool, as typified when he passes "secrets" to this spymaster, and said spymaster's response to be informed of these "secrets". And the PM discussing his looks as well was very funny; that's just the sort of thing I would say to someone.
I quite liked it though acknowledge it was a bit Carry On. That didn't spoil it for me though. I must admit, it was saved a bit by his secretary though.
"You've probably noticed I have a slight speech impediment ..... some people find a bit distracting". Well I certainly found it a bit distracting.
On that topic though it was a bit of a lesson to us all - when you think of how he got into the mess in the first place.
"You've probably noticed I have a slight speech impediment ..... some people find a bit distracting". Well I certainly found it a bit distracting.
On that topic though it was a bit of a lesson to us all - when you think of how he got into the mess in the first place.
I am of an age when I can remember John Stonehouse disappearing. I thought it was quite a decent programme. The actor playing Harold Wilson was very good and Matthew McFadyen excelled in the lead role even if previously mentioned did appear to be paying homage to the Carry On brigade. Will definitely be watching the remaining two episodes.
Edited by CooperD on Wednesday 4th January 11:16
I notice his family pop up in the news claiming he wasn't a traitor,he just gave secrets to the USSR lol.
They should be happy its all presented in a bumbling buffoonish way.
In another era Saville would have got the same treatment . I wish they had made something while he was alive as a rewatch now would be very telling.
Mind you there are all the documentaries by that ferox twit.
They should be happy its all presented in a bumbling buffoonish way.
In another era Saville would have got the same treatment . I wish they had made something while he was alive as a rewatch now would be very telling.
Mind you there are all the documentaries by that ferox twit.
PositronicRay said:
The character is all a bit Harry Enfield for me, OK but should have Micheal Sheene.
I watched the second one and the style is quite growing on me. I like the way Macfadyen acted Stonehouse telling stories so badly. An actor acting someone acting badly is quite amusing. The tension between his wife and the secretary was well done too. I'll probably buy a book about it all afterwards. Especially as I'm another one old enough to remember it when I was a youngster.Dr Jekyll said:
So was he mad? Just pretending to be mad? Or pretending to be mad without realising he was actually mad?
Having watched the drama and the documentary he simply looked like an A1 bullsh*tter to me. Not that unusual I guess, but it was odd the way the secretary stuck with him right to the end and even had a child with him.Slightly odd the way the drama compressed things to suggest all of the kerfuffle was happening at the same time whereas the documentary (if I understood correctly) showed the spying stuff (whether he did it or not) to have been over and the contact had already defected, before most of the things in the drama had started. The drama made it look to me like the company accounts were all just fakes to deposit Czech money into and that the disappearance must have been because of that. Then the documentary made it look more like the company accounts were a separate thing from the spying and the disappearance was about his relationship and possibly about debt as well.
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