The Turn of the Screw

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Rating 2

Directed by Tim Fywell

Written by Sandy Welch, based on the novella by Henry James

Starring Michelle Dockery (Ann), Sue Johnstone (Sarah Grose), Dan Stevens (Dr Fisher), Nicola Walker (Carla), Eva Sayer (Flora), Josef Lindsay (Miles), Mark Umbers (Master), Corin Redgrave (Professor), Wendy Abiston (Baines), Sarah Buckland (Diana), Edward MacLiam (Peter Quint) and Katie Lightfoot (Emily Jessel)


Ann takes up the position of governess to two young orphaned children in a large isolated house in the country. They have been cared for by the housekeeper Sarah Grose since the sudden departure of the previous governess. The girl Flora lives in the house, but her brother Miles is away at school, until a letter arrives to say he is being sent home and will not be allowed to return to the school. Ann becomes increasingly concerned by the behaviour of the two children and as the secrets the house hides are slowly revealed she becomes convinced that a depraved and malevolent presence from beyond the grave is attempting to claim them.

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The BBC has a long tradition of broadcasting Gothic ghost stories at Christmas, often those written by M R James, who remains probably the most celebrated English writer of ghost stories. For Christmas 2009, however, they chose a new production of the famous novella by Henry James, the famous British-based American writer. It was first published in 1898 and has frequently been the subject of literary analysis and discussion. This new adaptation, written by Sandy Welch, who has written many costume dramas for the BBC, including adaptations of ‘Emma’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘North & South’, sexes up the story, presumably in an attempt to make it more palatable to television audiences now, and in the process destroys much of the sinister mystery and ambiguity of the themes to found in the book.

Michelle Dockery (whose previous credits include ‘Cranford’, ‘Waking the Dead’ and ‘Fingersmith’) is very good in the central role and Sue Johnston is always worth watching. Eva Sayer and Josef Lindsay are suitably creepy as the strange young brother and sister, but while the production is well mounted, I found it ultimately a little disappointing.

Tim Fywell is an experienced director, primarily working in television. He has directed several episodes of the brilliant long-running BBC crime drama series ‘Waking the Dead’. He also directed the Disney film ‘Ice Princess’, starring former ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ actress Michelle Trachtenberg, and prior to that ‘I Capture the Castle’, a film that starred another former ‘Buffy’ actor, Marc Blucas, together with Tara Fitzgerald, one of the current main cast of ‘Waking the Dead’.

Review posted 9 January 2010


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Poppy Shakespeare

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Directed by Benjamin Ross

Written by Sarah William, from the novel by Clare Allan

Starring Naomie Harris, Anna Maxwell Martin and Michelle Dockery


“What the cast were actually suffering from, apart from award-winning overacting and loving themselves, was unclear. What the story was about and what we were supposed to glean from it was shrouded in the repetitive, glib, agitprop writing.”

When AA Gill, the noxiously opinionated television critic for the Sunday Times, gives a programme one of his all-too predictably condescending and negative reviews it is usually a sign that whatever he is criticising is probably worth watching. So it was with this one-off 90-minute drama offering from Channel 4.

Naomie Harris plays the title character, an out-of-work single-mother who finds herself sentenced to one month attending a psychiatric day centre - soon extended to eighteen months. She vehemently protests that she is “normal”, but is served with the threat of being sectioned under the Mental Health Act if she does not comply. ‘N’ (the always excellent Anna Maxwell Martin), a regular at the centre and a psychiatric patient for most of her life, is given the job of showing Poppy around and helping her to acclimatise. These two characters increasingly form a genuine friendship, but their lives are turned upside down in the process.

Based on the award-winning novel by Clare Allan, who has first-hand experience to draw from, ‘Poppy Shakespeare’ is a damning indictment of our mental health care policy and the Government’s obsession with targets and providing a public health service based on private business sector ideology. It plays as a kind of variation of Franz Kafka’s famous novel ‘The Trial’, posthumously published in 1925. Poppy is the victim of faceless bureaucracy and is pulled into a surreal dystopian world from which she cannot escape.

The story is given plenty of room to breathe and time to open out and develop at a leisurely but not stifling pace. As events become increasingly surreal, leaving us to ponder if this is the real world or simply a reflection of the delusional mindsets of the patients, so the story also takes an increasingly dark and troubling turn. The acting is universally excellent. Anna Maxwell Martin and especially Naomie Harris are outstanding.

The story is an incisive commentary on the woeful failings of New Labour to provide stability and an acceptable level of care within the public health sector, and I heartily give it my recommendation.



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