Spitz Spencer

A brilliant, brilliant film! Flawless and astonishing. I can't believe it wasn't adapted from a stage play. Mark Rylance (I once saw him on stage 29 years ago at the Globe's very first performance of Henry V) proves why Brits can play anyone, and Americans can only play themselves!

Nigel Spencer: A very un-American treat...till now. Anyone who likes Charlie Muffin will love this. So far, the series is incredibly good and remarkably true to the novels, even to the point of being filmed in the "actual" locale discovered by author Mick Herron, one of the few masters of this genre not really having lived as a spy himself (well probably, possibly). Jackson Lamb is delicious and represents a side of us all we would probably love to act out and even nurture. OK, I would, in any case. Gary Oldman is obviously enjoying himself hugely as the man we all hate to love. There are two basic mistakes here though: first, Roddy Ho is more of a nasty egomaniac and less of a goofy closet superhero (totally out of touch with reality) than he is in the books; secondly, the wonderfully explosively psychotic coke-snorting and sugar-bingeing Shirley Dander from the books is nowhere to be found in the lightweight and underwhelming version of the character we see onscreen. Archetypes anyone? They are part of the deep, unspoken power of these novels. Lady Die (Taverner) is the flip-side of the original Lady Di. The former is calculating, cold-blooded and unscrupulous, where the latter was spontaneous, sensitive and vulnerable. Lamb, on the other hand, is a part of ourselves we are longing to let loose on the world: apparently chaotic, blind, unthinking and invulnerable, yet oh so shrewd. He's our Dyonisian side, as is Shirley (only as she appears in the books though). The original Shirley is so far off the rails, she wouldn't know them if she tripped over them and upchucked the cocaine and sugar she's been bingeing on. Unfortunately her side of the triangle has basically been trashed by writer Will Smith. Mick Herron knew what he was doing when he created her for the books though. One word of caution: the final episode of Season Three also gets very violent, American-style, and we can only hope this does not bode ill for Season Four. Unfortunately, feedback from audiences who haven't read the novels and are addicted to computer-assisted superviolence in their movies may pressure the team into delivering a more violent and sensationalist version such as we are accustomed to in American films. Let's hope not. Does anyone remember what robots, computers and Americans did to Pennyworth?

We have recently been on the receiving (and deceiving) end of at least two potentially brilliant historical dramatic series that have gone badly wrong. The first and worst is George & Mary, a falsification which turns the reign of James I into a sperm-and faeces-drenched eight-day-a-week sodomy fest. How on earth could The Guardian praise it so highly? Apparently nothing else happened after Elizabeth I died; how could it? Yet so much did. This neglected period holds so much else of interest that is rigorously withheld from us by Julianne Moore's vanity piece, for what else can one call it? For reasons best known to her forensic psychoanalyst, Julianne Moore has indulged and glorified her personal demons for no good reason, and in so doing has twisted history hard enough to break its neck. The second series to do double injustice to a much-neglected period (the transition through Henry VII to the reign of Henry VIII) is The Spanish Princess. This one, at least, is entertaining and frustratingly well acted. Why frustratingly, simply because it is not true. Harry (the young Henry VIII) was NOT in love with Catherine...he was practically an infant! Henry VII never planned to marry Catherine upon Arthur's death, etc., etc. Why have these little-lit corners of history been so badly victimised...along with the viewing public?

Bonaparte's apparently minor invasion of Russia and ultimately crushing defeat (like that of his follower Hitler) ended in a disaster which is not made clear and is even called a "victory" in the film! So what about his other insane and dictatorial moves like installing his family on the thrones of several conquered European nations, etc., etc., etc.? Not a word of that. Why doesn't this glossy puff-piece expose this proto-fascist for what he was? Even Hitler masqueraded as a progressive liberator. Anyone can. ENOUGH with the mystification and falsification of history. Ridley Scott has finally lost it.

It's a bit like the 4th Indian Jones movie: a textbook on how to screw up a really good concept...on purpose. After a terrific first season-and-a-half, the original charm and mystique have been trashed by an invasion of Yanx. I personally don't care about the Batman part. It's been done to death. Two weeks ago, Alfie and Daveboy were barely brought in and then only as the second-string cleanup crew. The original antique-sci-fi atmosphere is long gone, and the show has been totally flattened out and blanded to death. This week's mess with Gully did nothing to bring it back. If we wanted to watch a boring, run-of-the-mill Yank show, there are plenty of those around. This is a perfect example of how to ruin a good Brit show overnight.