I wound up enjoying this made-for-TV movie more than I thought I would. While I had a certain idea of what to expect based on the title, it actually goes in quite a different direction. Pretty nice leading role here for Jodie Whittaker. (Side note: the copy I watched was a fairly low-quality video, which I think had the effect of making me feel the film was lower-rent than it actually is. I’m trying to push back on that perception.)
In 1981, a small-town neighborhood in Wales prepares for a street party to celebrate Prince Charles’s wedding to Diana, complete with a potluck, a live DJ, and lookalike contests. Linda’s 15-year-old daughter Tammy is a Diana superfan and the mastermind behind the event, but Linda herself has anything but the royal wedding on her mind. She’s just been laid off from her factory job, and she’s not sure how they’re going to make ends meet—her husband Johnny, with his floundering music career and plethora of “next big thing” schemes, isn’t going to be much help. She’s been having an affair with her boss, who asks her to run away with him. It all comes to a head at the street party.
I’m reminded a little of the new Who story “The Idiot’s Lantern,” which also takes a historic moment for the British monarchy—the coronation of Elizabeth II—and uses it as a backdrop for the personal drama of a working-class family as they watch the event on TV. That episode ends with a street party too! It’s interesting as a thematic tool, with everyone in town eager for Diana’s fairytale wedding while Linda, who’s gotten used to her dreams not panning out, is weighing the few choices she seems to have available to her. Diana is both a glamorous princess in a frilly dress and a powerful woman rising to prominence in the country. Meanwhile, Linda is just one of many women who are being laid off at the factory (because the available jobs need to be “preserved” for the men,) and she’s felt stuck in her dead-end town after getting pregnant at 15. The pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding, juxtaposed with the messy uncertainty of an ordinary woman’s life, makes for a nice contrast. Throw in the dramatic irony of knowing how things turn out for Diana, along with Magaret Thatcher’s role in the economic conditions that are putting Linda in dire straits, and it gets pretty interesting.
I didn’t realize it until I looked on IMDb afterwards, but the movie was written by Abi Morgan, who was the creator of The Hour. This definitely tracks—in both, she does a nice job exploring women leading lives of quiet desperation, whose opportunities have been limited by sexism.
Besides Whittaker, there are two other Who alum in this film. Rebekah Staton, who was in the “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood” two-parter from series 3, plays Linda’s friend and coworker Beverley. And I was excited to see a baby Jacob Anderson pop up as Wesley, a quiet boy with a crush on Linda’s daughter Tammy. Even better, he spends most of the film dressed as Robert Smith from The Cure (although people keep insisting he’s going for Michael Jackson, because he’s a Black boy in a small Welsh town in the ‘80s.)
As Linda, Jodie Whittaker offers up an interesting lead performance. She’s spent years in a life she feels stuck in, complete with a dead-end job and a husband who doesn’t pull his weight. Her affair has given her pleasure, but it’s only a temporary escape from her frustrations and dissatisfaction. And yet for all that, Linda isn’t resigned to staying where she is. When she’s laid off, Johnny assures her, “Hey, we’ll manage!”, but Linda replies, “I don’t wanna just manage. I wanna do something, you know?” While she might be stuck right now, she doesn’t see that as an inevitability, which I appreciate.
Whittaker does a nice job showing Linda’s inner conflict—her desire for something more/better vs. the things that are keeping her here. A big part of the latter, of course, is her daughter. Linda has a lot of regrets in her life, but Tammy isn’t one of them, even as Linda is anxious to ensure Tammy doesn’t repeat her mistakes. There are some really lovely scenes between the two of them. I like when a late-night talk between them turns into singing as Tammy recalls Linda’s stories about the night she met Johnny, with Whittaker giving us a lovely rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” I also really like a moment where Linda finds Tammy upset in the middle of the street party. “Come on, Tam,” she urges gently. “You can’t cry on your big day.” I love that, because all the royal wedding stuff feels a little silly and frivolous to Linda, but she knows how much it means to Tammy and gives that the respect it deserves.
Accent Watch
Welsh.
Recommend?
In General – A soft maybe. It is very “made-for-TV movie,” but I came down on the side of enjoying it.
Jodie Whittaker – I think I would. It’s a decently complex role, and Whittaker does well with it.
Warnings
Language, sexual content/references, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.
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