Quarter 1 Reviews- 001 Historical Drama (New)

2020 Quarter 1 Reviews

The world was a very different place when Quarter 1 started.  Nevertheless, we go on. 

001 Historical Drama – New

I’m always reminded of Zinovy Zinik calling the BBC adaptation of Life and Fate a soap opera version of the original novel.  While this is unfair, the application of a soap opera formula—and accessibility to the point of dumbing down—is one criticism that could be levelled at Exile, a revisionist attempt at presenting the story of the original Mayflower emigrants.  The inclusion of so much modern slang is a little grating at times, but other than that, I admired this re-fashioning.  Having recently read a popular history book that attempted to do the same—making clear the huge risks that the Pilgrims were taking, the deprivation they had already suffered, and what they sought to achieve in New Plymouth—dramatizing one fictionalized family’s story to stand for the whole Pilgrim settlement makes for satisfying drama.  It’s very difficult for a modern Western secularized audience to empathize with people of the past whose lives are completely and honestly devoted to their religious zeal, which is patently the case with most of the Pilgrims.  The adaptation gets around this by presenting one character, Matthew (Trystan Gravelle), in this vein, but totally undermines him as a hypocrite and a coward.  The rest of his family are much more sympathetic—and so modern that they are almost difficult to take seriously.  Sarah (Louise Brealey), his wife, does not have the religious devotion that he does, and any feelings on that subject that might have existed are dashed when she has to sleep with a Church of England priest to secure the release of her son, Ben (Joel McCormack), from being framed for poaching.  To then be presented with Matthew’s decision to relocate the whole family to the New World, depriving them of all familiar surroundings and making them completely penniless, is understandably heartrending for Sarah.  Their teenage daughter Elizabeth (Megan McInerney) is secretly pregnant and gives birth in disgrace in the New World.  Fighting for survival, the family suffer all kinds of disasters.  In terms of structure and pacing, Exile is very well-written.  The performances are strong, and the music and sound effects are evocative.  It’s a bold experiment, and I do hope they are going to do a second series . . . someday.  It was directed by John Norton and also starred Matthew Gravelle, John Cording, Marc Danbury, Ashleigh Haddad, and Daniel Taylor.

Fall of the Shah by Steve Waters is a BBC World Drama and when I listened it had been released for less than a year. Although there are a few British characters, the story is mainly told from the point of view of American and Iranian characters, and therefore truly qualifies as world drama (which just happens to be made by a British production company).  I have to admit, I knew almost nothing about the Iranian Revolution, and what I knew about Iran came from the book on the Persians that I had recently been reading.  The story was well-told, and as far as I can determine, about as objective and neutral as it could be with such a volatile subject matter.  One felt sympathy for the doomed Shah (Bijan Daneshmand), who had been brought up to rule (though, as the book on the Persians noted, Persian rulers had a streak of fatalism and always knew there was a possibility of being toppled if they were no longer deemed rulers by divine right) and his wife, Farah (Nathalie Armin).  Jimmy Carter (Nathan Osgood) comes across as both honorable and (devoutly) naïve (somewhat similar to a portrayal of Ronald Reagan in a previous BBC radio drama).  The multi-talented Carolyn Pickles plays Mrs Carter.  Taking a leaf out of the Tommies book, Diana Rigg is the imposing narrator whose poetic commentary is sometimes a little too grandiose.  Perhaps the most interesting story is that of Canadian journalist Carole Bauman (Clare Corbett) whose sexual relationship with Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (Philip Arditti), one of Ayatollah Khomeini’s acolytes, feels sordid but ultimately carries a bittersweet quality.  Sadegh ensures that Carole gets two exclusive interviews with Khomeini (Selva Rasalingam), before and after his triumphant return to Iran.  Rasalingam is chilling as Khomeini, and the restraint in writing this character is impressive.  On the American side, there is a diplomat, William Sullivan (Tony Turner), seemingly fearless, both in telling the Shah what he doesn’t want to hear, and in dealing with insurgents at the embassy.  One also has to feel sorry for Sharpour Baktiar (Peter Polycarpou), the Francophone stopgap prime minister who ultimately takes the fall.  There is a real ambivalence in the storyline in which a young student is tortured in the Shah’s dungeons, which radicalizes him, setting him against his moderate father.  A very well-made drama.  Well worth the time invested into it.  It also starred Sam Dale, Moe Bar-El, Dana Haqjoo, Afsaneh Dehrouyeh, Ashley Kumar, Amir El-Masry, Vincent Ebrahim, Sara Zeymour, Paul Chahid, Ronny Jhutti, David Seddon, Saffron Comber, Don Gilet, Sara Zeymour, and Bhasker Patel.  It was directed by Marc Beeby with music by Ghanvar Khaleghi and sound design by Caleb Knightley.