"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Titmuss Regained: Episode 1 – “Today” (1991)

 
From what I can tell, Titmuss Regained is PC’s first foray into playing unscrupulous politicos.    He’s played powerful, less-than-moral men in sitcoms (The Thick of It, obviously,) sci-fi (Torchwood,) and historicals (can’t forget old King Charles I in The Devil’s Whore!), but this, it seems, is where he cut his teeth.
 
This miniseries is evidently a sequel to an earlier story that I’ve not seen.  Both revolve around Leslie Titmuss, a country man from the “by your own bootstraps” school of political advancement.  Episode 1 sees him championing development in rural areas, but he runs into trouble when his childhood village winds up in the path of the bulldozer.  While he knows that, in light of his usual M.O., it’d be hypocritical to go against the proposal, he has an awful lot of hometown constituents preparing to make a fuss.
 
PC plays Ken Cracken, a junior minister in Titmuss’s department.  His introductory character moment involves yelling at the man who catches him and his secretary in flagrante, if that gives you any idea what he’s like.  Cracken is aggressively ambitious, he’s snobbish, and he seems to enjoy messing with people “just cuz.”  Translation?  Probably not someone you’d bring home to meet the folks.
 
PC’s performance is a lot of fun.  This role came early enough in his career that his acting is still a little unpolished, but Cracken is full of the unique energy that PC brings to his work.  He’s a sleazy, two-faced politician, but in a really entertaining way.  Also, his disregard for the environment (and thus, his love of urban development) is ridiculous.  He takes a palpable glee in it; you’d think he was a villain from The Lorax.
 
I have to say, Shameless was one of the first British series I watched, and I saw all 11 seasons, but I didn’t even recognize David Threlfall as Titmuss.  I saw on the Netflix envelope that he was in it, but I had to check IMDb to figure it out.  Not even a hint of Shameless’s Frank Gallagher, and bizarrely, he looks/seems older in this, even though Shameless started a decade later.
 
Accent Watch
 
A really nice RP, crisp and plummy.
 
Recommend?
 
In General – Not necessarily.  Good performances, and the premise is interesting enough, but it’s awfully slow-moving.  Hasn’t hooked me yet.
 
PC-wise – Quite possibly.  Like I said, Cracken is a broad but entertaining baddie.
 
Warnings
 
Sexual content and some light swearing.

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