I watched some television last night, which is unusual for me. It was a rare TV appearance of Maggie Smith, who is nearly always worth seeing (Miss Jean Brodie, A Private Function...). This time in a drama by Stephen Poliakoff, which also starred David Walliams (him off Little Britain) as the bad guy.
My overall feeling was wtf was all that about? Okay, the sets and costumes were lovely, okay, Maggie was lovely as always, and Walliams was acceptable I suppose... but ... I don't think I'm dim, and if I don't get it, I'm going to assume the author is being a bit obscure, or has nothing to say really. It seemed to be about the Maggie Smith character and how an incident with a man (Walliams) in her past, where he said something nasty to her, continued to obsess her for the rest of her life, and ruined everything, until she visited the place where it happened and got the **** over it. That took an hour and a half.
I am glad to see a Grauniad columnist agreed:
there's a truth about his [Poliakoff's] dramas that is rarely acknowledged - they're not very good. In fact, they are pompous, pretentious and, in the end, empty.
...
As they exist in an unreal world, Poliakoff's characters don't behave as people do. They casually spill beans and bare souls because the story demands it.
...
unintelligible, self-indulgent claptrap.
I found I didn't believe in the characters and their reactions ... but, worse than that, it didn't seem to be about much. "Oh, there's that creepy man again, I don't know what he wants, I'm going to avoid talking to him, but he keeps looking at me..." She needs to get the **** over it .... then she does ... The End. Am I too simple-minded?
