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| The Great Fire; The Knick review – One period drama takes a while to warm up, the other is deliciously gory | The Great Fire; The Knick review – One period drama takes a while to warm up, the other is deliciously gory |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The worst joke of all time may be that one that did the rounds when Titanic was released in cinemas in 1997. “I can tell you how it ends!” a million dads chortled, as if they were the first to conceive of this daring thought. It does illustrate a problem with entertainment set against real historical events, however: if you know what’s going to happen in advance, how do you maintain the tension? The Great Fire, ITV’s latest blockbuster, tries to offset this lack of surprise by extending what is essentially a run-of-the-(flour)-mill period drama into a romance, a spy thriller, a disaster flick, a political fable and the Great British Bake Off gone horrifically wrong. Still, despite this combustible combination, the opener was surprisingly limp, until the fire itself showed up and lit a match under the action. | The worst joke of all time may be that one that did the rounds when Titanic was released in cinemas in 1997. “I can tell you how it ends!” a million dads chortled, as if they were the first to conceive of this daring thought. It does illustrate a problem with entertainment set against real historical events, however: if you know what’s going to happen in advance, how do you maintain the tension? The Great Fire, ITV’s latest blockbuster, tries to offset this lack of surprise by extending what is essentially a run-of-the-(flour)-mill period drama into a romance, a spy thriller, a disaster flick, a political fable and the Great British Bake Off gone horrifically wrong. Still, despite this combustible combination, the opener was surprisingly limp, until the fire itself showed up and lit a match under the action. |
| Andrew Buchan, last seen as compromised philanthropist Ephra Stein in the excellent The Honourable Woman on BBC2, is Tom Farriner, a decent-bloke baker with an errant oven who provides bread for the king’s navy, though the king is unable to provide payment in turn, due to that pesky war with the Dutch and his fondness for croquet and courtesans. Restoration London is a great place for television to visit, not least because of all those men in voluminous, cascading, hair-ad-friendly wigs. Though the point is a little laboured, there is a recognisable modern tension in the air, even before the fire takes hold. Samuel Pepys is on a boat, and his cabbie, if you can call him that, suggests the poor might as well burn. Pepys replies with a fierce defence of the city. “Without London, we’re nothing but a nation of sheep-farmers,” he insists, like a right old member of the metropolitan media elite. | |
| Pepys – played by an amusingly against-type Daniel Mays, better known for slack-jawed, salt-of-the-earth types than the harried well-to-do – advises Charles II that there is a whiff of revolt in the air. Charles (Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston, excellent as the reckless king, neither glibly naive, nor concerned enough to avoid disaster) is too busy trying to arrange a menage a trois to listen to him. Meanwhile Catholic rebels are meeting up in spooky, darkened underground chambers during Latin masses, plotting a rebellion. You know what would help them oust or even execute the monarch? A great big catastrophe that throws the city into chaos, that’s what. | Pepys – played by an amusingly against-type Daniel Mays, better known for slack-jawed, salt-of-the-earth types than the harried well-to-do – advises Charles II that there is a whiff of revolt in the air. Charles (Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston, excellent as the reckless king, neither glibly naive, nor concerned enough to avoid disaster) is too busy trying to arrange a menage a trois to listen to him. Meanwhile Catholic rebels are meeting up in spooky, darkened underground chambers during Latin masses, plotting a rebellion. You know what would help them oust or even execute the monarch? A great big catastrophe that throws the city into chaos, that’s what. |
| Luckily, for them at least, Farriner’s overworked bread oven spits out an ember, which catches on a bit of straw, then takes the whole wooden bakery with it. It all starts to come together from here. Farriner dashes to the rescue of his daughters, while his (possibly) dead sailor-brother’s wife Sarah (Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie), whom he definitely has the hots for, is bundled off in the back of a horse van by a proto secret service, which is making her spy on a known Catholic sympathiser. So far, only Pudding Lane is alight, but, as dads everywhere might chuckle, we know the ending already. | Luckily, for them at least, Farriner’s overworked bread oven spits out an ember, which catches on a bit of straw, then takes the whole wooden bakery with it. It all starts to come together from here. Farriner dashes to the rescue of his daughters, while his (possibly) dead sailor-brother’s wife Sarah (Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie), whom he definitely has the hots for, is bundled off in the back of a horse van by a proto secret service, which is making her spy on a known Catholic sympathiser. So far, only Pudding Lane is alight, but, as dads everywhere might chuckle, we know the ending already. |
| This is decent enough drama, if not quite as great as its title would like it to be, and it is lifted by a fine cast, particularly Charles Dance as the sinister intelligence officer Lord Denton. There are some nice lines too – I particularly enjoyed the deft exchange between Pepys and the king on sycophancy, contempt and respect. | This is decent enough drama, if not quite as great as its title would like it to be, and it is lifted by a fine cast, particularly Charles Dance as the sinister intelligence officer Lord Denton. There are some nice lines too – I particularly enjoyed the deft exchange between Pepys and the king on sycophancy, contempt and respect. |
| Don’t do what I did, though, and follow The Great Fire with The Knick (Sky Atlantic), another period drama with a knowing touch of modernity. All of a sudden, the perfectly pleasant ITV four-parter began to look cheap and parochial. It’s not a fair comparison, of course: The Knick has loads of cash behind it, and Steven Soderbergh directing it, and Clive Owen starring in it, so little wonder it dazzles, visually, at least. Owen is turn-of-the-century surgeon Dr John Thackery, who shoots up solutions of cocaine between his toes in the back of a cab before performing gruesome, experimental surgeries in front of an eager audience. It’s not pacey, and there’s a sense that Owen still needs to find his feet (they’re covered in track marks, should be easy to spot). But it looks stunning, is deliciously gory, and oozes quality. Word of advice, however – it oozes a lot of other things, too, so avoid if you’re in any way squeamish. | Don’t do what I did, though, and follow The Great Fire with The Knick (Sky Atlantic), another period drama with a knowing touch of modernity. All of a sudden, the perfectly pleasant ITV four-parter began to look cheap and parochial. It’s not a fair comparison, of course: The Knick has loads of cash behind it, and Steven Soderbergh directing it, and Clive Owen starring in it, so little wonder it dazzles, visually, at least. Owen is turn-of-the-century surgeon Dr John Thackery, who shoots up solutions of cocaine between his toes in the back of a cab before performing gruesome, experimental surgeries in front of an eager audience. It’s not pacey, and there’s a sense that Owen still needs to find his feet (they’re covered in track marks, should be easy to spot). But it looks stunning, is deliciously gory, and oozes quality. Word of advice, however – it oozes a lot of other things, too, so avoid if you’re in any way squeamish. |