Donovan Quick

I first watched this when it was first shown 21 years ago, enjoyed it then. Over the years, I'd forgotten about it, then for whatever reason it popped up in my memory again. Kept looking out for it for ages, then I spotted it showing on BBC Scotland as I was channel hopping. Still as enjoyable as it was when I first watched it. Great performances by all, especially Colin Firth and Katy Murphy. It's well worth seeking out for a decent BBC Drama.

Sadly, some of Colin Firth's best work is hard-to-impossible-to-find in any format. This is one such film and it is such an exceptional piece of work on all levels. It needs to see the light of day on DVD.

The cast is wonderfully realized by all involved. Ditto the plot with a head-turner of a twist ending.

Firth is such an amazing actor and nuance is extremely important to this film. He succeeds in this, but it is no surprise if one has seen any of his earlier, also sometimes obscure, work. He conveys more in a look than most actors can in dialog and over-the-top emoting.

I will have to add to these comments kudos to the exceptional Katy Murphy who shares the spotlight with Firth at the center of this story.

This is a modern day telling of the Don Quixote story, but also much more. It is also about triumph and will and, ultimately, great poignancy.

I would recommend seeing this film if at all possible, if it can be found. Firth was and is such a versatile actor, long before he became a leading man. Tumbledown, Hostages, A Month in the Country, Donovan Quick -- must-see films if you truly want to see the range of the man who has since received the accolades for being the actor he always was.

Donovan Quick is a modern day reworking of Cervantes Don Quixote.

It also happens to be a critique of the Tory governments privatisation policies of public transport. In short council led bus services being replaced by private monopolies who stifle competition. They also gets millions of pounds in government subsidies.

Colin Firth is the haunted stranger Donovan Quick who enters the life of alcoholic Lucy Pannick (Kate Murphy) in Scotland. Donivan rents a room from her and is generous with the rent.

Lucy has a intellectually disabled younger brother Sandy, a senile mother who is always wandering around in her underwear, a tearaway teenage son and an abusive married boyfriend who is always sponging off her.

When Sandy cannot get public transport to his learning centre because services are cut by Windmill Transport.

Donovan and Sandy team up to start their own bus company. This provokes the ire of Windmill transport who wants to quickly put them under.

Donovan is polite, generous and slightly eccentric or maybe just mad. He is also hiding something and has flashbacks to a time when he was not so nice.

This is a small scale gritty fantasy. You have to ignore that maybe Donovan Quick might have been more easily identifiable.

Effectively Donovan is the catalyst for the Pannicks, a marginalised family in a rough working class district. They gain something as the little guys who take on the bigwigs.

An interesting and a dark tinged reworking of Don Quixote.

To begin with Donovan Quick is Don Quixote, albeit a modern Don Quixote in a thoroughly modern setting with a modern corporate enemy (Windmill Transport). Donna Franceschild (who also did the tv adapation of Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson) captures something of the dreamer-influencing-reality spirit of the original book in her screenplay for this telemovie. I found myself entranced by the production, going from desperation with the circumstances of of the Pannick family (Katy Murphy turning in a wonderful performance as Lucy Pannick, caretaker of her mentally disabled brother and senile grandmother, girlfriend to the somewhat abusive Clive) to the belief in the grand schemes of Donovan Quick (Colin Firth). What occurs in the confrontation between Donovan and Windmill Transport and what happens in the final twist ending I won't reveal here - go out, find a copy of this telemovie and see it for yourself.

(And for Colin Firth fans - this is a must! As Donovan Quick, Firth gives a brilliant demonstration of his abilities as a character actor, not just as a handsome leading man.)

Apart from the currently fashionable under-lighting which puts some scenes in near total darkness this is a most enjoyable & involving drama with ever-smouldering Colin Firth the stranger in town with a past and Katy Murphy (what a wonderful face!) the damsel in distress who he comes to rescue. Her distress involves a mentally-retarded brother, a manipulative, selfish lover, a pile of bills and a Mother who wanders round the house dressed only in her slip.

Donovan buys an old bus and sets up in opposition to the villain of the tale, a monopolistic bus company, Windmill Transport (Geddit?) and battle is joined.

I found one short, violent scene unnecessarily graphic but the plot is beautifully resolved with a most satisfying - and surprising - final scene.