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Stonehouse… John Stonehouse… a new ITV* drama about a Labour MP who faked his own death.
Now, if it was every Tory MP, today, who jumped into the sea for real, no-one would mourn them.
But for this one (played by Matthew Macfadyen), he’s a philanderer and sniffing all around his secretary, despite being married to Keeley Hawes… well, his wife, Barbara.
This begins with a particular scene which I’ll come to shortly, but it then heads back to “some years earlier” to when Kevin McNally is the Prime Minister, but instead of Harold Wilson, he sounds more like Michael Parkinson!
Looking to take over the top job, he gets into some trouble and drawn into working for the Czechs, but over time, they, plus his party and everyone else is turning against him, leading Stonehouse with just the one option which he took at the start of the episode… faking his own death by walking into the sea, Reggie Perrin-style.
However, I was struggling to stay awake as this hour droned on, so it’s no surprise that as our lead character would end up swimming, overall, this opener all felt fairly pedestrian.
(*I refuse to call it ITV1. They made that mistake before and later corrected it, only to ruin it again)
Stonehouse continues on ITV tomorrow night at 9pm, and concludes on Wednesday at the same time, but is available to stream in full on ITVX now. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
However, you can buy John Stonehouse, My Father: The True Story of the Runaway MP Audible Logo Audible Audiobook by Julia Stonehouse on Paperback, Hardback, Audiobook and Kindle.
Director: Jon S Baird
Producers: Ellie Wood, Ruth Kenley-Letts
Writer: John Preston
Music: Rolfe Kent
Cast:
John Stonehouse: Matthew Macfadyen
Barbara Stonehouse: Keeley Hawes
Sheila Buckley: Emer Heatley
Harold Wilson: Kevin McNally
Betty Boothroyd: Dorothy Atkinson
Bank Manager: Robin Laing
Jane Stonehouse: Orla Hill
Speaker at the House of Commons: Simon Greenall
Lady Twigg: Emma Davies
Matthew Stonehouse: Archie Barnes
Julia Stonehouse: Aoife Checkland
Harry Evans: Will Adamsdale
Charles Elwell: Timothy Walker
Cliff Michelmore: Albert Welling
Interview (Sheila’s Flat): Alex Caan
Insurance Salesperson: Jessica Murrain
Reporter (Miami): Paul Westwood
Sir Edward Twigg: Rupert Wickham
Civil Servant: Celia Robertson
Mrs. Carey: Catherine Skinner
Nurse: Samantha Yetunde
Gentleman: Alan Sylvester
Mackenzie: Richard Dillane
Czech Government Official: Brian Caspe
B.A.C. Spokesperson: Jonathan Rhodes
Irena Bala: Ieva Andrejevaite
Bob Mellish: Bryan Lawrence
Margaret Thatcher: Devon Black
Ray Simpson: Mike Sengelow
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.