Another Life

I remember watching a 70's TV film called A Pin To See The Peep Show based on this case, starring Francesca Annis. At least I'm fairly sure they were about the same case. Oddly enough when you look up APTSTPS on IMDb it recommends that you watch a Doctor Who Special. Now as much as I love Doctor Who I can see no comparison!!! Anyway, I would love to watch that again to compare the two productions.

All in all I thought this one was superbly acted by all involved, but especially by Natasha Little. The props and sets seemed authentic enough. I would have preferred if they had included more of the actual trial and less of the build up to it. But all in all well worth watching.

The conviction and execution of Edith Thompson is now generally considered to be a miscarriage of justice. I rather thought that that would be the focus of this film. It's not. It's mostly about a failed marriage and an adulterous affair. The murder and the aftermath of it are skimmed over. It is fairly apparent in this depiction that Thompson had no part in the murder but, since the investigation and trial are barely portrayed, it's rather hard to see how she ended up getting hanged for murder. It happened, as far as I can see as a consequence of a weak jury who were unduly influenced by the prejudiced summing up of a rotten old misogynistic judge. Even with that judge she might have survived if she had been properly represented and this dim jury had had the law, and the burden of proof properly explained. That's the story that the film should have concentrated on.

I hope to see this film one day. I don't even recall it being released in the U.S.

The Thompson - Bywaters Case of 1922 - 23 was one of the great disgraces of British Justice. Edith Thompson was accused of instigating her boyfriend, Frederick Bywaters, in stabbing her husband Percy on a street in London at night. To his credit, Frederick denied her involvement - he claimed he killed Percy for mistreating Edith. Unfortunately for Edith (a woman with a big imagination) letters she wrote to Bywaters were preserved by him, and they suggested that she had tried to poison Percy on several occasions. Problem was that the crown pathologist, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, never found traces of the so-called poisons. The solution by the prosecution: ignore Sir Bernard (normally trotted out at every major criminal prosecution at the time) and concentrate on the evidence that Edith and Frederic were committing adultery. Although ably defended by Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, Edith made the mistake of going into the witness box, and she suddenly panicked inside it. It sank whatever chances she had. The jury found her and Frederick guilty, and they were executed.

The judge at the trial, Mr. Justice Shearman, had been junior to Edward Marshall Hall in defending the notorious wife murderer George Joseph Smith, and yet he made comments about how sickened he was by Ms Thompson - more sick than at any other killer he came across. The prosecutor was Sir Thomas Inskip. Whatever one says of his ability in railroading Mrs. Thompson, Inskip would mis-serve his country in the late 1930s when he purposely slowed down the rearmament programs of the Baldwin and Chamberlain governments in the face of growing Nazi aggression. These two were the defenders of English hearth and home in this case.

The play A PIN TO SEE A PEEP SHOW is based on a novel by F. Tennyson Jesse, an noted criminal historian (and descendant of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson). It is a retelling of the Thompson tragedy.

I bloody well HATED this mess of a film. Slow, stupid, melodramatic in the shrillest and most tasteless fashion. Everybody in it is a crashing bore. Edith and, what's his name ... oh, you know, her lover ... are the most unlikeable people I ever had to endure. We're to think Edith is an original, imaginative woman, but she merely comes off as flighty, silly, tiresome and annoying. As for Nick Moran's and Ioan Gruffud's acting, the less said, the better. I couldn't care less whether the lovers were guilty or not. I just wanted the two wretches to be put out of their misery. And mine.

Anyway. Watch this dud, if you absolutely must. But, as Dante said on a similar occasion: 'Abandon all hope ...' and all that.

First, a comment. Edith was the eldest sister in the family. Let's start with a truth. So, finally I got around to watching this film and it took me quite by surprise. For I had previously read some reviews which were, perhaps not necessarily positive. However, I had reservations, mostly about the many technical inaccuracies of so many parts of it. (Far too many to go into) However, bringing the immensely sad story of Edith, Percy and Freddy to the big screen was done with sensitivity.

I am pleased to count as one of my friends, Professor Rene Weis, who wrote Criminal Justice, Edith's life history, and our aim is one of justice, to eventually force the government to offer a posthumous pardon to Edith. To this end, we work very hard. Even eighty-five years after her death.

It therefore quite astonished me that Rene was not mentioned or thanked in the end titles. Certain details in the film clearly showed that the writer/director had read his book and that saddened me.

However, I have to thank him for bringing this subject to a wider audience. If you seen, Let him have it or Dance with a Stranger, similar types of British film (an execution at the end) they were done so much better. Better actors I think. And music. And screenplay. Anyway, seen it at last. I think it must be very difficult to write a great screenplay.

Molly Cutpurse