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.

ITV is on a roll with high quality dramas after the excellent Anne ,comes this gem .

The direction has a knowing and crisp feel , the script is truthful but very witty , the musical score superb .

The acting is fabulous , every member is good but standout is Macfadyen , whose lugubrious and dishevelled charm , (his voluminous hair seemed to have a life of its own ) ,captures the essence of an old school charmer who can't see his terrible behaviour for what it really is . The politics of the time were captured really well , Harold Wilson was spot on .

ITV deserve a lot of credit for putting together great creative teams and let's hope they continue with this level of quality .

Stonehouse hit the right tone from the off. Its a true story about a crooked politician in Harold Wilson's government but has mischievous fun with its subject matter.

Production values were excellent all round, direction by Jon S Baird was assured, it had a whip-smart script by John Preston (who wrote 'A Very English Scandal') and the score by Rolfe Kent was great.

Viewers under 60 will ask who Stonehouse was - but you don't need background knowledge to enjoy this excellent drama. In a sense Stonehouse represents every entitled politician though the ages who's been caught out and skewered.

So much better than I expected, thoroughly recommended - its entertaining, very funny and Mathew MacFadyen is outstanding as Stonehouse.

This 3 part ITVX series is just an absolute hoot! This true story is just so bizarre it's hard to believe it really did happen. I went online to further study the case & the series does mostly stick to the actual story.

The characters, actors, soundtrack & cinematography are just all top notch. There are also quite a few laugh out loud moments. The 70s hairstyles & fashion are so expertly recreated. The leads are superbly cast & it is all perfectly wrapped up in 3 episodes.

It reminds us of all the too many UK political scandals. Do yourself a big favour & make time to watch this most entertaining series.

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.