LONDON — In the final moments of the new mini-series This England, weary and bewildered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stares blankly out of his window at 10 Downing Street and takes his usual steps back to Shakespeare.
“This blessed plot, this earth, this kingdom, this England,” says Johnson, played by Kenneth Branagh on the series. The series is a six-part drama about the ordeal of Britain by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We usually leave it there,” he says, turning to his worried wife Carrie (Ophelia Lovibond) cradling her newborn child. “Forget the rest.”
Johnson, however, continues to recite the end of John of Gaunt’s deathbed soliloquy from “Richard II”, blaming the King for the blame. “England, which used to conquer others, has made itself a disgraceful conquest,” he says.
This is a fitting coda for a topical show in the UK, a series that captures the daily heroism of Britons during a pandemic, but the failures of their leaders and how those failures have delayed them. how it contributed to the response, which undoubtedly led to national suffering and unnecessary additional deaths.
“This England,” which debuted on Wednesday’s Sky Atlantic in the UK to solid ratings, chronicles almost every day how the first wave of the pandemic spread across the country. For many, the timing is interesting given that the latest wave of the virus has yet to wane.
British documentary filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, who co-wrote the script with Kieron Quirk, said he sees the show as “a mosaic of the experiences of many people,” from Johnson and his advisors to doctors and nurses. rice field. In overwhelmed hospitals and nursing homes.
In a joint interview with Branagh, Winterbottom said, “I think the goal is to be human and humane. To honor and acknowledge this incredibly painful loss.” Nonetheless, he added, “there was a feeling that everyone was doing their best.”
Yet inevitably, “This England” shows that people are lacking. Shrouded in a mist of mysterious illness, some in government like Johnson initially underestimated the risks. Some, like the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Dominic Cummings, who violated lockdowns by driving 260 miles to visit family, have personally been forced to make bad choices.
Work on “This England” began in June 2020, shortly after the first wave raged across the country, with scenes of desperation in ambulances and hospital intensive care units creating a sense of agonizing urgency. there is. Much of the commentary on the show in the UK has focused on whether it’s too early to dramatize all of this.
Nearly 300 dead from Covid-19 7 days until 17th September in the UK. More than 4,000 people were hospitalized.The government is still begging people to get booster shots. beaten up and kicked out of office Just two months before the scandal surrounding a Downing Street party that broke lockdown rules.
Protests against the party do not appear in the film, ending with Cummings’ erroneous road trip to his parents’ home in the north of England after his wife contracted COVID-19. Financial Times declared that the show “performs the extraordinary feat of feeling premature and outdated at the same time.”
Winterbottom acknowledged that the show was the first cut and that some might prefer a cooler perspective with distance that we might see in future books and movies about the pandemic. , was to keep a kind of diary of national trauma, he said. “Being close gives you a fresher perspective,” he said.
Another big argument is Branagh’s performance as Johnson. The 61-year-old Oscar-winning actor donned a blond wig, prosthetic limbs, and padding to assume the tottering look of a 58-year-old politician.
Some critics praised Branagh For nailing Johnson’s propulsive gait and idiosyncratic phrasing.another Rejected as impersonation It is reminiscent of the puppets of the British television show Spitting Image, which satirized the celebrities of the 1980s and 90s.
Branagh, who has played real-life characters such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and German SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, said he and the writers debated how much they should imitate Johnson. Prime Minister concluded that he was too vivid in people’s minds to stray far from OG
Branagh said, “I think it’s hard to give an audience something very different—something stylized and abstract—because someone is in the public eye.”
Branagh said he read all of the former prime minister’s books, including a biography of Winston Churchill and a newspaper column in the Daily Telegraph, to delve into Johnson’s inner life. ”, and came to consider himself ambitious and combative, but emotionally separated from those around him by the overwhelming weight of his work.
That led to the performance. “I didn’t make small talk with the other actors,” Branagh recalls. “It seemed that there was already a feeling that the burden had to be borne. When the burden was borne, it must be left alone.”
Branagh saw footage of Johnson leaning forward as he ran through the House.he said he was particularly shocked video Johnson, then mayor of London, ran over a 10-year-old boy while playing rugby during a visit to Japan. “The almost unstoppable rush is only part of the driving force,” Branagh said.
But ‘This England’ also offers a sympathetic portrayal of a busy man with a tangled personal life. Johnson is pictured mournfully leaving voicemail messages for his adult children between emergency meetings and late-night awakenings to appease a crying baby. and moving in with Carrie, who worked as a Tory public relations aide, a painful rift developed.
‘This England’ also captures the cramped and claustrophobic work environment of Downing Street, which doubles as the Prime Minister’s Office and the headquarters of the British government. There are follow-up shots of the aide walking and talking about pressing national issues that recall Aaron Sorkin’s series The West Wing. After Johnson himself contracted Covid and spent three days in the intensive care unit, the close quarters became nearly fatal.
As far as heroes and villains go, the show clearly puts Cummings in the black hat category. I’m here. Winterbottom said producers have reached out to all principals and collected accounts.
When Shaw pulls the camera out of Downing Street, “This England” suddenly shifts from political procedural to tragic. There are many scenes in hospitals and nursing homes, some of which were filmed in actual nursing homes, with real residents and care staff recreating real-life experiences.
“Our starting point was to make everything as accurate and authentic as possible,” says Winterbottom.
It becomes a heartbreaking depiction of the pressure on medical personnel, and of the fear, pain, and often lonely deaths of those connected to ventilators. It’s easy to see why he would peer into the cold dawn and lament how disease had conquered his “scepter island.”