Mrs Wilson

The BBC proved once again that 2018 has really been the year for drama, Mrs Wilson follows the likes of Killing Eve, The Bodyguard, with another exceptional series, Mrs Wilson. A show that must have been incredibly close to home for the lead actress, Ruth Wilson.

The story was fascinating, the way it was told was captivating, how on Earth could someone you love so much, hide so much? Fascinating, it just gets deeper and more complicated with each scene.

The performances all round are excellent, but the problem is, that when Ruth Wilson is on screen, she's just so captivating, that it's hard to focus on anything else, she really is that good.

Superbly acted, fantastic production values, and a captivating story, if I had one criticism, I would say I think it could have been done over two parts.

Excellent. 8/10

Another great performance by the mesmerizing actress Ruth Wilson who plays the naive third of four wives, Alison Wilson, of the real life bigamist Alexander Wilson, real or imagined, slight of hand is how this cheating husband lived at least four separate lives. Alexander Wilson was an English writer, spy and MI6 officer. Alexander Wilson the author fooled his four wives by writing under the names Alexander Wilson, Geoffrey Spencer, Gregory Wilson, and Michael Chesney. The story line is based on real events of Ruth Wilson's own family tree so who better to play Mrs. Alison Wilson but one of her own grandchildren, Ruth Wilson.

This is a dramatic reenactment of how the lives of the bigamist Alexander Wilson's wives and many children from his four concurrent (and illegal) marriages and parenthood suffered at the hands of a man who although very loving and family orientated, abandoned them all while serving a six (6) month term of hard labor in prison.

Mrs. Wilson is not only well written, but exceptionally acted by all who participated in this 3 episode TV mini-series. Mrs. Shullivan and I both thought that the third and closing episode was superb and allowed the audience to understand and appreciate the pain and suffering that bigamist Alexander Wilson left behind by suddenly dying of a heart attack for his four (4) wives to deal with upon his sudden death.

I'm a sucker for anything Ruth Wilson is in since I first saw her in Luther. Amazing.

She's the centerpiece of "Mrs. Wilson" too. The whole thing was pretty good with good acting by all and good production quality. The fact that it was based on a true story is cool. It felt a little rushed towards the end and might have benefitted from another episode somewhere in the middle. If the concept looks good to you give it a spin.

Worth watching for the amazingly talented and beautiful Ruth Wilson at her very best! This is such an almighty tall tale, when I saw it was a "true story" or "based on real events" I had my doubts! And then just before I watched episode 3 I learnt it was Ruth's actual grandmother she was playing! You see every kind of emotion on her face as her character learns more about the man she loved, and how blurred her reality actually was.

Ruth is AMAZE - she deserves a BAFTA or something! She totally outshines Keeley Hawes -who, it is rumoured, is the favourite, for all of her 8 mins in the Bodyguard. But like, whatever.

This was a three-part miniseries, each episode about 55 minutes, now available via streaming services.

Back around 1940 a 20-ish young lady began working in London as a typist for a secret wartime surveillance operation. Her work required her to type for a distinguished older gentlemen, Alex Wilson. After her residence was damaged in a bombing raid he took her in, they became lovers, they were married, they eventually had two sons, the younger being Nigel. But that is only the beginning, Alex led a life was filled with secrets.

That young lady was Alison and after she was married became Alison Wilson, the series is partly based on a memoire she wrote in the mid-1960s as a way to tell her sons the truth of their father. Of note the actress Ruth Wilson is the real-life granddaughter of Alison and the younger son Nigel depicted in the series became Ruth's father. At the end of the last episode we see photos of everyone and it is clear that Ruth Wilson inherited her distinctive upper lip from her dad. (Not a criticism, to me Ruth is a real beauty.)

This is a very well made and intriguing almost 3-hour series. Ruth Wilson of course is superb and her comments about playing her own grandmother are very interesting and worth looking up on the internet. Search "Ruth Wilson on playing her grandmother."

My wife and I watched it on Amazon streaming via Roku.