Reviews

Some reviewers here have positive things to say about Joan Collins, but she spoils anything I have seen her in. She looks like she has been preserved in a pickle jar full of make up and wigs, and her acting always rings false. Pauline Collins is her usual 3 dimensional self, adding humanity and authenticity to the film.

Using these 2 as foils to each other was obvious and mostly boring. I hope to see Pauline act in more interesting vehicles with less narcissistic co-actors in the future. Kudos to even making a film with older women actresses, besides the obvious ones. There are many who would relish the chance.

I write this review 6 years later, but I found that watching the last scene in this episode between Margaret and Elizabeth just broke my heart. I know that they were both close and envious of each other, but that scene- al Elizabeth would have had to do was cross the room and show her compassion/love , but she became the "Queen" in that moment - it hurt to see. This may be fiction, but there is probably some base in fact. Watching this episode for psychological nuance was fascinating.

I did see this live in 2014 on a trip to London and only wished I could have seen it again. What you can't know from watching the NT Live (how I miss it , pandemic!) version, which I scattered off to see when it was announced, is that when Carrie Mulligan's character is cooking you can smell the cooking odors, and all the brilliance of this play is magnified 100% by having had the luck to be able to see it live.

Both reviews are on the mark- this moved me so much I found a DVD so Ican watch it for many years.

I hope others are as lucky. It's one of David Hare's best.

I have to disagree with the ONLY other review here. Much as I also have fond memories of Upstairs, Downstairs and Duchess of Duke Street, this production is full of "the cheese factor" and most of the acting is absolutely hysterical or bad, or both. I stopped watching after the middle of the 3rd episode. The movie with Phyllis Calvert isn't a fine work, but more engrossing than this, for sure.