Letter To Brezhnev (1985)

You can read my review at The Geek Show

Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)

"Do good or do well"

Ah Spooks. I loved Spooks. Or to be clear, I loved the first two seasons of Spooks. Three tops. Created by David Wolstencroft, and using such quality writers as the acclaimed left wing playwright Howard Brenton (though you'd have to look online or some such to find that out, as Spooks revelled in never having any opening or closing credits) Spooks was truly innovative British television...right up until its original stars Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes and David Oyelowo (whatever happened to him?) departed. The show - also known as MI5 for a US market that delights in the blindingly obvious - ran for ten seasons from 2002 to 2011 but, once the original central characters had gone, replaced by the likes of Rupert Penry-Ponce and Hermione Norris, I quickly lost interest. The only good thing to come out of those later episodes was the rising prominence of Peter Firth as spymaster Harry Pearce. Here was a character who had something like two scenes in the very first episode, but by the time the curtain fell on the TV series he was undoubtedly its star and the show's biggest draw. This stature is rightly carried across for this spin-off movie, Spooks: The Greater Good.

(It's worth mentioning there was another spin-off entitled Spooks: Code 9 on BBC3 in 2008. Aimed at the 16-24 year old market it was risible nonsense set sometime after 2012 when London, hosting the Olympic Games, was hit by a nuclear attack. The series was such a flop, Spooks quickly chose to disown and ignore it from its canon - as seen here.)

Now, because I'd bailed on the series I was initially a bit hesitant about watching Spooks: The Greater Good, but I needn't have worried. The film works perfectly well as a stand-alone and an introduction to the world of the series that preceded it for new audiences, whilst at the same time drawing on much that made the series great for its long-established fans - principally the return of some characters from the show, the aforementioned Pearce (Firth) the dependable former analyst Malcolm (Hugh Simon) the reptilian Oliver Mace played by Tim McInnerny, whose cold blooded and charismatic ambiguity makes for a very welcome reappearance here, and two others from the tenth series of the show who were new to me; Geoffrey Streatfeild as IT expert Calum Reed and Lara Pulver as Erin Watts.

I was also hesitant in case the storytelling style of the movie was essentially the same as the later episodes of the series, those that proved such a turn-off for me. Granted they maintain the same kind of riffs, with the intelligence that the likes of Howard Brenton brought in the early years being AWOL, but the film is nevertheless a very proficient spy thriller with some genuinely tense and well-shot moments from director Bharat Nalluri and cinematographer Hubert Taczanowski which make particularly good use of its London and Berlin locations. It's always refreshing to see a homegrown action movie I guess.

The cast is also excellent. Firth is once again truly impressive as Harry Pearce, the skinny latte generation's George Smiley. Providing much of the film's legwork and attracting a younger audience however is Game of Thrones star Kit Harington as Will Holloway, a former MI5 operative who feels betrayed by his former father figure Harry Pearce but who forms an uneasy alliance for the titular 'greater good'. Rounding out the cast are performances from the divine Tuppence Middleton and the foxy Eleanor Matsuura, Homeland's David Harewood and Pride and Prejudice's Jennifer Ehle. In the pivotal role of the villain of the piece, we have Elyes Gabel an actor who has carved a career out for himself in the US to my complete and utter bemusement. He was dead-eyed, drippy and wooden in a string of British TV programmes like Casualty before relocating and finding fame Stateside, and he continues to be the weakest link here too. The Wiki entry for the film describes his character as a 'charismatic terrorist leader' but there's no sign of any charisma as far as I'm concerned. Or indeed much threat.

The script by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent is proficient enough though it can't escape a tendency for a cliched clunker, especially in the peculiar relationship between Pearce and Holloway which centres on the former being linked to the death of the latter's father when an op in Berlin went horribly wrong. Brackley and Vincent wrote several episodes of the original series which means the same kind of themes return here, including its fondness for shadow conspiracies. It's a real shame because the shadow conspiracy at the centre of their plot here is a treasonous plot to discredit MI5 from within so the Americans can absorb the service into their own CIA, a threat that doesn't really bear scrutiny and one whose perpetrator I predicted right from the off. Seriously, you don't have to be George Smiley to work this one out.

Despite the odd flaw or faltering element though, Spooks: The Greater Good remains a solidly watchable and fun experience for both newcomers and fans alike.

Letter To Brezhnev (1985)

Call me a sentimental old northerner, but the opening to Letter to Brezhnev remains one of my favourite moments of celluloid. Whilst budgetary constraints mean that it may not be as epic as it clearly wants to be, it nevertheless understands that Liverpool is a British city to be mythologised; we see Peter Firth and Alfred Molina's Russian sailors on deck in the last stretches of the Irish Sea, excited to clap eyes on the wondrous Three Graces of Liverpool by the evening light. Accompanied by Alan Gill's (Teardrop Explodes, Dalek I Love You) soaring score, the camera sweeps across the remaining stretch of water to rise up across the city skyline.

It's the perfect love letter to the city. 

And overall, Chris Bernard's film, from a script by Frank Clarke (adapted from his own stage play), continues to be the almost perfect love letter to Liverpool. Alexandra Pigg and Margi Clarke (Frank's sister) star as two salt of the earth Kirkby girls, Elaine and Teresa - the former a dreamer and the latter a realist - who optimistically head out into Liverpool one night whereupon they meet Peter (Firth) and Sergei (Molina) on shore leave. 

Whilst the brassy Teresa enjoys a simple night of orgiastic pleasure with Sergei, Elaine finds something deeper with the more sensitive Firth. Like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, come the next day the Russians have to reboard their ship and head back beyond the iron curtain, leaving Elaine heartbroken and lovesick, her only option to fix matters being the titular 'letter to Brezhnev'; a plea to be reunited with the man she loves.

It's a far from perfect film, it's rather naive and all too often it betrays its shoddy budget (Margi Clarke famously announced it was made for the equivalent of "the cocaine budget on Rambo") but it's heart is always in the right place. Its a film about daring to dream and having the courage to break out from the doldrums of Thatcher's Britain for love - even if that love just so happens to be in Soviet Russia. 

What helps Letter to Brezhnev is the vibrant, energetic and exuberant performances from the cast which belie the brittle nature of the characters they portray. It's a film blessed with tough, rough charm and perhaps an unexpected romcom sweetness that has proven to be deeply influential in the years that followed (that first episode of Gavin and Stacey anyone?) Margi Clarke was never better than she was here and Peter Firth and Alexandra Pigg make the most affecting of star-crossed lovers.

Northanger Abbey (1987)

 

This critically and commercially lambasted adaptation of Jane Austen's novel was broadcast in the Screen Two strand in 1987. Having read some truly scathing reviews - there's in excess of twenty single star ratings for it on Amazon alone, with several of them unfairly and incorrectly casting catty aspersions on the attractive qualities of the two leads; Peter Firth and Katharine Schlesinger -I decided I needed to check this out for myself.

Northanger Abbey and I have history. I consider myself an admirer of Austen yet I cannot claim to enjoy this particular story which centres around the naïve and wildly imaginative teenager Cathy Morland who, having read one too many Gothic bodice-ripping novels, misinterprets the behaviour and manner of the paternal head of the Tilney family, whom she is staying with at the titular Abbey, for sinister and macabre intentions. I didn't even enjoy the most recent adaptation from 2007, and that starred a crush of mine Felicity Jones! So what hope does this film actually have?

Well, having seen it now I believe it is fair to say the BBC were trying something a little different here. For a start there's some indication to this bold desire in the fact that it was adapted for Screen Two in the first place, rather than serialised as the BBC traditionally afforded Austen adaptations. Given the context of the time, the mid 1980s, when period drama had become fashionable once more and Merchant Ivory were riding high (with backing from Screen Two rival Film 4) it seems understandable that the BBC would want to emulate some of that success with a 90 minute feature rather than say a six part adaptation shown weekly. Screen Two always had an eye on a potential lucrative cinematic release, as witnessed with Truly Madly Deeply just a few years later.

It's shot entirely on location by director Giles Foster which, along with the crisp efforts of cinematographer Nat Crosby, gives the whole production a very light and airy, spacious feel that is quite sumptuous to behold. There's a scene featuring the protagonists 'taking the waters' in Bath that is especially striking, recalling period paintings in an almost Greenaway-esque manner. 

The score by Ilona Sekacz is often singled out for particular criticism. Even today, attempting a contemporary, modern day score for a period film is a daring move so by mid '80s standards this may well have been a step too far. Granted at times the music, with its electronic guitars and wistful sax, does feel like its made its way there from that week's episode of Bergerac (that the Jersey based cop drama, not Cyrano de...I hasten to add) but when it neglects these instruments to focus primarily on wordless harmonies and some subtle synth I didn't find it at all distracting, and it works perfectly for the lurid fantasy scenes.

Ah yes, the fantasies. I sometimes wonder if the people who gave this the thumbs down have actually read Northanger Abbey - is it this adaptation they dislike or is it the story itself? You see, it focuses on the silliness of Cathy, a wide eyed innocent teenage girl, and I do sometimes wonder if her inherent silliness ultimately scuppers the story itself. I say this, because I sometimes feels that it does for me personally, even though I can claim to share with Cathy her ability to feel awkward, embarrassed and uncomfortable as a house guest when I've stayed with friends myself. Granted, Maggie Wadey's script enhances these fantasy sequences (and sometimes at the cost of other more humdrum, normal sequences from the novel) but I think this is in fact a wise move, one that is in keeping with Austen's original intention to satirise the tawdry books Cathy finds such delight in reading and also one that hints that the lusty dreams that springs from such literature were perhaps an all too natural outlet for young women in such repressed, starchy and formal society. Andrew Davies would later deliver similar fantasy scenes in his 2007 adaptation with some gusto, but less atmosphere, and therefore ultimately not to the same levels of success that this adaptation has.

One of the most prominent complaints levelled at this production is the acting. I'm not sure if a lot of the reviewers on Amazon are perhaps possibly just insensitive or ignorant to the change in acting styles in the past nigh on 30 years, specifically TV acting. Back in the 1980s there was still a tendency to perform in a rather theatrical manner - especially in studio productions where actors performed to the banks of cameras before them as they would to an audience on the stage - which television didn't really shake off until the mid 90s when more location shooting and hand held cameras became the norm. I see no issue here with Katharine Schlesinger as our heroine Cathy Morland. She convinces totally as the impressionable innocent abroad both in Bath and at the Abbey, more so in fact than Felicity Jones would do twenty years later. Schlesinger is an actress I recall well as the sinister 'That's The Way To The Zoo' singing daughter in spooky 1989 Doctor Who story Ghostlight and as Kathy Staff's goth grandaughter in inoffensive 1988 sitcom No Frills and she possesses the right kind of doe eyed, raven locked beauty required for period drama - especially those with a slightly Gothic hue - so to suggest otherwise and to claim she is not attractive enough is a slur. 

Peter Firth on the other hand....I'm struggling. I admire Firth as an actor, and can equally appreciate his an attractive enough man with his golden curls and cherubic features, but his glib Henry Tilney makes for a strange hero and love interest for Cathy and the chemistry between them suffers as a result. The supporting cast, the likes of Cassie Stuart, Googie Withers, Jonathan Coy and Robert Hardy, are very mannered and loud (though Hardy is essentially just Robert Hardy as he is in any period drama, just in a slightly different wig) so I can understand some may find this distracting and irritating. But again, their performances are pitched in such a way to deliberately contrast the acting of our heroine, played by Schlesinger. They are the vulgar rich snobs and/or greedy social climbers, accustomed to town life, their behaviour has to be remarkably different to the country bred, homely and innocent Cathy.

Ultimately I cannot agree with the levels of hate this adaptation receives. It's by no means a success, and the music and the acting from some quarters dates it as a totally '80s piece of film making, but I still feel that its bold attempt to try something new shouldn't be judged too harshly. It consistently looks lovely and it manages to carry off the message Austen intended - to be careful not to confuse fantasy with reality - rather well and certainly more enjoyably than the 2007 production. It has actually made me see the story a little differently, and that can only be a good thing.

Northanger Abbey has been released a couple of times to DVD and is available to view for free in full on YouTube. See what all the fuss is about for yourself!

To get the BBC to consider repeating some of these classic plays, please sign the petition I started here