After
A Very British Scandal
, an anthology miniseries which recounted the Thorpe affair or the criminal relationship, before the decriminalization of homosexuality, between a liberal pretender to the portfolio of prime minister and a young manic-depressive groom, the journalist, author and screenwriter John Preston tackles another story.
Those which delight the tabloids and which make detractors of the British upper class say that its members are no better than ordinary mortals, whatever their rank and the education they have received.
To discover
TV program this evening: our selection of the day
Inspired by true events,
Stonehouse: MP, Lover and Spy
recounts the incredible escape, in the mid-1970s, of a Labor Party MP.
Bad spy, bad lover, poor husband, insignificant politician and disastrous businessman, John Stonehouse, played by the brilliant Matthew Macfadyen (the careerist and hypocritical son-in-law of
Succession
) had imagined pretending to be dead in order to flee the trouble.
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Quickly spotted in Australia by the secret services – the real ones – the guy then played the split personality card.
In vain.
This shows its absolute mediocrity.
This also shows his total feeling of impunity.
Directed by Jon S. Baird (
I'm Dying Up Here
), the three episodes weave a story that takes the time to portray, even analyze, the character to better show his ridicule, hubris, harmful nature, but also its possible dangerousness.
Deliciously vintage
The viewer initially hesitates.
By what miracle did such a loser manage to cross the threshold of Parliament?
Is his appalling willingness to play the fool natural or strategic?
Do you have to be cruel or stupid enough to imagine a charming face-to-face encounter between your legitimate wife and his mistress possible?
And it doesn't matter, ultimately.
At the time of the program's broadcast across the Channel, a British journalist pointed out that an MP with a hitherto intact reputation had just been denounced for several orgiastic parliamentary trips, carried out, of course, at the taxpayer's expense.
Strange how things repeat themselves...
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Beyond its aspect of criticism of a political world whose pawns, powerful or subordinate, too often forgive each other for their misdeeds,
Stonehouse: deputy, lover and spy
, halfway between
OSS 117
,
Mr Bean
and
The Pink Panther
(the film ) is a deliciously vintage farce carried by incomparable actors.
Macfadyen delivers an impeccable performance.
Keeley Hawes, married in real life to the actor, is Barbara, the wife at first ambitious, then ulcerated, but always exemplary.
The secondary characters are in tune, all imbued with this ironic distance - but never cynical - so specific to the demands of English good manners.
The British public, with the exception of Stonehouse's family of course, were won over.
His known taste for political scandal, elevated to the rank of democratic practice since the invention of caricature in the 18th century and widely fueled since then by the popular press, is satisfied.
Ours too.