True story! Seems too ridicilous to be true, but it is!
That's a "meh" for me.
Felt like a 20-minute story stretched to 3 hours.
We see an awful lot of Stonehouse either acting like a buffoon or trying desperately to maintain a dignified facade, but not enough of him doing anything else really.
[Filmin] The story has the right ironic and even malevolent undertone that hints at the way Harry Wilson's Labor Party glossed over some of John Stonehouse's inconsistencies. It's one of the successes of a miniseries that has in Matthew Macfadyen another of his main supports, who in some way represents that British political class whose fondness for scandals is already as characteristic profile as English calmness itself. Although the direction lacks that mastery in the comedy composition that Stephen Frears provided in "A very English scandal" (2018) and sometimes it seems that it loses steam.
A pretty good show that I didn't know happened even though I was a pre-teenager living in the UK at the time!!
Although it's "based on a true story" (except for the bits we made up)... it's worth a watch and is quite entertaining.
I don't know why Matthew Macfadden keeps playing his characters as complete dimwits. Just like the character in Billions, he plays this MP like he's a fool with no clue what's going on around him.
For a true story of the events though, read this bit by the daughter (Jan 2023) - seems more than just little was made up by the writer!! - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/05/itv-john-stonehouse-drama-fiction-daughter
8.5/10
Shout by TheChocolateFingerBlockedParent2023-01-03T19:37:07Z
fun so far it’s a stupid MP who’s really bad at being a spy - im a fan