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shallownessLegacy was a 90-minute 1974-set spy thriller that aired on BBC2 last on Thursday night, featuring Charlie Cox, Romola Garai, Simon Russell Beale, Andrew Scott, Christian McKay and Geraldine James, good background music and lots of red phone boxes. It was very well done; I wouldn’t say it had the brilliant impact of the Gary Oldman adaptation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy – fewer twists, less intensity, but in no way stupid or slapdash.
Cox played another Charles – I always think that such parts must be weird – a British intelligence officer in training, who was given a case early because of personal connections that became something else, something much bigger. I won’t go into too many plot details – there were Daddy issues, but they didn’t automatically get my heckles up. I was glad to see Cox in a lead role like this and by how he handled it, because I hadn’t seen him since he guested in the beginning of Downton Abbey and...well, that's a while. But here he was in a quality drama, looking good in 1970s style (and just a bit like a young Robson Greene, weirdly). I liked how the steeliness of a potentially good officer came through in his character.
Garai played Anna, a fellow spy, married with children, with whom Charles had a spark. I wasn’t entirely convinced by her accent in the opening scene, but it was meant to be a put-on. She was, of course, good, and I loved the way that their relationship developed - I thought it gave due weight to her life experiences, and I loved that the trope of pretending to be lovers was played the way it was. I do wonder how many modern productions she’s been in compared with period ones – but she may inch forward to something that’s set in a time in which she’s actually been alive in the next thing she does.
Geraldine James was playing on officer who knew a lot about the Soviets – she reminded me a little of Chancellor’s Lix Storm and I was a little sad that she and Anna never interacted, but that this was Charles’s story, and Anna was The Girl, if a well-developed one whose professional role wasn’t too undercut by the romance. (Legacy was adapted for TV by a woman from a novel by a man.)
James was good like Russell Beale and Christian McKay (whom I’m always glad to see since his brilliant Orson Welles in Me and Orson Welles). But Andrew Scott was brilliant as the Russian spy Charles has to deal with. Brown pools of eyes, desperate, flawed. I really, really like Scott as a performer and thought he pitched it right.
I don't remember the seventies, although some of the objects and looks were familiar, but the use of tech felt ‘modern’ to me. Nice use of the power cuts and then everything would be lit up by cigarette butts. I wouldn’t say the show was wreathed in smoke, as it probably ought to have been for authenticity (apart from one or two scenes) even if everyone was chugging madly, but that’s a bit of accuracy I can put up with junking. It looked really good and I loved the effect of skipping forward and back in fime for some scenes. It wasn’t overdone, it was mildly disorientating and put you on the back foot, although, for me, this wasn’t totally a twisty turny concentrate on every detail thriller.
Thank you, BBC Cold War season I didn't know was on.
Cox played another Charles – I always think that such parts must be weird – a British intelligence officer in training, who was given a case early because of personal connections that became something else, something much bigger. I won’t go into too many plot details – there were Daddy issues, but they didn’t automatically get my heckles up. I was glad to see Cox in a lead role like this and by how he handled it, because I hadn’t seen him since he guested in the beginning of Downton Abbey and...well, that's a while. But here he was in a quality drama, looking good in 1970s style (and just a bit like a young Robson Greene, weirdly). I liked how the steeliness of a potentially good officer came through in his character.
Garai played Anna, a fellow spy, married with children, with whom Charles had a spark. I wasn’t entirely convinced by her accent in the opening scene, but it was meant to be a put-on. She was, of course, good, and I loved the way that their relationship developed - I thought it gave due weight to her life experiences, and I loved that the trope of pretending to be lovers was played the way it was. I do wonder how many modern productions she’s been in compared with period ones – but she may inch forward to something that’s set in a time in which she’s actually been alive in the next thing she does.
Geraldine James was playing on officer who knew a lot about the Soviets – she reminded me a little of Chancellor’s Lix Storm and I was a little sad that she and Anna never interacted, but that this was Charles’s story, and Anna was The Girl, if a well-developed one whose professional role wasn’t too undercut by the romance. (Legacy was adapted for TV by a woman from a novel by a man.)
James was good like Russell Beale and Christian McKay (whom I’m always glad to see since his brilliant Orson Welles in Me and Orson Welles). But Andrew Scott was brilliant as the Russian spy Charles has to deal with. Brown pools of eyes, desperate, flawed. I really, really like Scott as a performer and thought he pitched it right.
I don't remember the seventies, although some of the objects and looks were familiar, but the use of tech felt ‘modern’ to me. Nice use of the power cuts and then everything would be lit up by cigarette butts. I wouldn’t say the show was wreathed in smoke, as it probably ought to have been for authenticity (apart from one or two scenes) even if everyone was chugging madly, but that’s a bit of accuracy I can put up with junking. It looked really good and I loved the effect of skipping forward and back in fime for some scenes. It wasn’t overdone, it was mildly disorientating and put you on the back foot, although, for me, this wasn’t totally a twisty turny concentrate on every detail thriller.
Thank you, BBC Cold War season I didn't know was on.
