Another fly-on-the-wall confidence trick

Rating: 1/10 (30 April 2007)

Another master of the genre, Paul Greengrass, blew-back on all his fans when he made the fictional "United 93" and passed it off as "meticulous reconstruction". Here's another, from a far inferior writer (he started with some TV farrago called "Shalom Joan Collins"), and another director who should have known better, Stephen Frears. Writer and director pretend they knew exactly what was happening in Number 10 and in Balmoral Castle, without a scrap of evidence to show for it. For all we know, the Queen was being held captive in Balmoral, and Blair was obeying his CIA masters who saw him into office. There's no mention of the security services of any of the countries involved: the USA, France or the UK. The portrait of Tony Blair is fawning: family man, working stiff, decent to the core. The portrait of HM Queen is even more reverent: reserved to a fault, massively dignified, a true monarch. Her inward humanity is demonstrated by the idea that she felt sorry for a stag shot by an investment banker: pure fantasy, of course. However, the spectacle of Reggie Dwight/Elton John entering Westminster Abbey to sing his Marilyn Monroe song adapted for Diana (she didn't even merit a new song) reminded one of the hideous reality of TV Britain, and I must admit that for one moment I actually sympathised with my sovereign (as presented in effigy by the film-makers).