Tim Piggott Smith is going to play Asquith on Thursday BBC 2 at 9.00! And for three nights too…..
Tim was interviewed on the Andrew Marr show and the presenter insightfully asked Tim whether there was anything about his letter writing to Venetia in the play .. he said there wasn't but they both agreed that Asquith was a serial gropper.. how much dropping does he do in the play?
I can't wait to see the play as it is billed as a proper historical documentary but why has Mark Hayward (the author) missed out the vital fact that Asquith was writing letters to his young lover in cabinet meetings?
That union of prime minister HH Asquith and Venetia Stanley produced my stepfather Louis Stanley!
I've just watched the whole £37 days" thing (3 episodes) on the BBC iPlayer. The script is rubbish, but the filming, acting and props are good, except for the automatic pistol used by the assassin of the Archiduke, which looks suspiciously like an anachronism to me since student rebels would be more likely to get hold of a revolver than an expensive up-to-date automatic in 1914 (although perhaps BBC discovered that the German Kaiser gave him one!).
ReplyDeleteHopefully, Hollywood will make a better movie of the subject, exposing Asquith's distractions. Maybe you should write the script this time!
If I can just add this: I graduated in multimedia and marketing, and I think the best way to do a movie about the tragedy of the outbreak of WWI is to base the script on the treatment of "Titanic", the 1997 movie written and directed by James Cameron.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, the script for events of the movie should be set around the true love story involved (not just a Foreign Office clerk). Maybe you should send Cameron your book and an outline (so called "film treatment", or summary for a draft script) and see if he is interested in commissioning a full script for the movie?