Stonehouse

The amazing story of John Stonehouse says everything you need to know about political life in the 1970s. A labour MP starts work on his way up the ministerial ladder happily married with children, Stonehouse goes on the journey of self destruction first of all getting embroiled as a useless spy for the Czech government.

All of a sudden the money dries up labour lose the election and Stonehouse is dropped as a spy on the money dries up and he finds him self in a whole heap of trouble.

From here on in is the stuff of legend even though I was only a young boy when this took place, I remember it very clearly and this TV series, brings this remarkable story to life.

Matthew McFadden is perfect as the corrupt politician, whilst Kevin McNally as Harold Wilson and Keeley Hawes are excellent in the supporting cast.

Written by John Prescott the program strikes a nice balance between humour in fact. 8/10.

A short mini-series was just the right amount of time for this particular story. Never knew or even heard of this affair before so it was fun to learn some fun facts.

I enjoyed the cast and cool vibe of the scenery. The lead is really good every time he's in a bind he bumbles around until he squirms his way out. Sheila the secretary is actually the female lead. I think they could have delved some more into her background. I needed to understand how she was so easily wrapped up in Stonehouse's capers. A bigger focus on the spying aspect would have made this a 9 perhaps a 10 for me.

It was a fun series and you learn something of this obscure bit of history.

John Stonehouse's fall from grace is a sad story, and the mildly comedic flavour of this production might be seen as inappropriate. But the fact is that his actions and attitudes were indeed somewhat farcical, and the writer, director and actors manage very well to stay just this side of playing it for laughs. Its roots in reality are never lost, and the viewer is left with a sense of pity and despair for Stonehouse, and sympathy for his family and others affected by his misguided decisions.

In a wider sense, the series highlights how someone short on common sense, but long on ambition and greed, can do well in politics by presenting a confident and convincing facade. I like the way Harold Wilson is portrayed as seeing Stonehouse as a good image for the Labour Party because he is handsome. And how he makes him Minister for Aviation because he'd been in the RAF for two years. I've no reason to think this is inconceivable, and it's an amusing reflection on how some of our current crop of politicians got where they are.

So full marks to everyone involved. The period detail is very impressive, taking me back to my younger days in the early 70s. The husband and wife team of Keeley Hawes and Matthew MacFadyen are superb as the Stonehouses, Emer Heatley does a marvellous job as Sheila Buckley the secretary, and Kevin McNally's portrayal of Harold Wilson is uncannily accurate.

As soon as the music starts you know this isn't going to be a dour, miserable drama, and the proclamation about things being dramatised, means it isn't going to be historically accurate , but none of that matters a jot, this is pure entertainment! Makes such a change from the number of dark dramas on TV these days.

The character of Stonehouse is wonderfully played by Matthew McFadyen, sometimes you despair at how unaware of his own ridiculousness he is, but then the next minute, you're rooting for him!

The ever dependable Keeley Hawes is excellent as the hard done to, but ever loyal wife.

Have to say the entire thing just flew by for me, which is always a good sign , and I'll certainly rewatch in the future.

My overall impression was that it was good.

Then I watched the companion documentary and I realised that Matthew Macfadyen's characterisation of John Stonehouse was completely false He portrayed him as whimsical and naive, but in truth he was very ordinary, devious and calculated.

Keeley Hawes performance as Barbara Stonehouse was flat at best and when I saw the real person in the documentary she bore little resemblance at all to the portrayal.

In reality she was blonde and had a very upper crust BBC accent. There was no attempt at portraying her in this way in the drama.

In the end the plaudits must go to Kevin McNally (Harold Wilson) and Dorothy Atkinson (Betty Boothroyd), both outstanding.

When the reality can be so easily researched on the Internet I cannot understand why they fiddle with the real story. E.g the ending.

A shame really, but the documentary (The Real John Stonehouse) was more interesting.