ogdendc
Joined Jan 2013
Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Ratings100
ogdendc's rating
Reviews85
ogdendc's rating
This was the best drama documentary I have seen all year. Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford were excellent as Charles and Diana Ingram. Aisling Bea added a note of comedy to the proceedings. But the best performance by far I was by Michael Sheen as Chris Tarrant, perfectly capturing all the strange vocal inflections and physical movements of the original. Some commentators have suggested that the show was unfairly biased towards Charles and Diana. However I thought it fair to put both sides of the argument. If you choose to believe that they were completely guilty then that is up to you. However, it does seem clear that the presentation of evidence was skewed by the television company themselves and that many of these shortcomings were pointed out by the defendant's solicitor. My only slight complaint is that this would have been much tighter as one show, maybe an hour and a half, rather than dragged out into three 1-hour instalments. I also felt that some of the minor players in the drama, for example Diana's brother, did not bring very much to the proceedings and and I could have done without knowing of his personal difficulties.
This is an episode of Dad's Army that was least repeated for many years, because of the reference to the IRA. In fact it's a non-controversial story relating to a darts match against the ARP wardens that the platoon are involved in. Mainwaring is outraged and sends Wilson to the pub to challenge them. Bill Pertwee features prominently as the Chief Warden, which is usually the sign of a good episode, as is 'Elizabeth', though we never get to see the Captain's wife. There are two guest appearances by J. G. Devlin as Regan and
Arthur English as the Policeman. They will seem familiar to viewers of Are You Being Served and Steptoe and Son (Dangerous Hours). Fine comedy actors. Classic British Comedy.
By the time this episode aired the main characters were well known and well loved. Yet there was no staleness that would eventually hit the aging cast. This episode saw the platoon on exercise at a prisoner of war camp, populated by Italian prisoners. Mainwaring is at his pompous best, Wilson vague and ineffectual. Jones is enthusiastic. Walker (sadly missed from later series) actually knows the Italians, and that is the key to the plot of the episode.. Godfrey knows one line of Italian, which he knew from opera. It's a lovely warm humorous half hour, even if it does play a bit to wartime national stereotypes.