misstoes

Director Ken Russell was always fascinated by other artists and feels right at home in their nightmares.

This dramatization of the relationship of early romantic poet William Wordsworth with his sister, the diarist Dorothy Wordsworth stars David Warner and (usually comedic) Felicity Kendal. Their complex dynamic provides Ken Russell with many an opportunity to cause an eyebrow raise.

Russell co-wrote this and in his other films (including the sci-fi classic Altered States and the third entry of the Harry Palmer series, Billion Dollar Brain) he is what is sometimes called an "unreliable narrator." His avant garde version of the siblings goes forward and back in time, with glimpses of Dorothy's fits of headache and conviction that her brother is killing her off under other women's names in his poems. William departs for France at the time of the Revolution and witnesses the brutality. An odd character of an American fan is interjected into the action (real? False?) but in typical Ken Russell fashion, we don't know if he is a dramatic expediency or a real historical visitor.

Russell is self-indulgent as always but it is worth watching (there's nobody in English like him) and we do get a sense of Dorothy as his muse and also a distraction from his work and wife. Once you accept that this isn't a strictly accurate bio of William Wordsworth, it is almost enjoyable. It's not boring.

There is at least one more episode with Warner and Kendal reprising their roles with David Hemmings as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, easily found on YouTube (as of Jan 2025).

Joan Plowright a nd Alec McCowen star in a drama based on an Elizabeth Taylor (not *that* Elizabeth Taylor) story from the early 1960s.

In the opening we learn Plowright is an older lady working for the first time ever, rather late in life after taking care of her dying mother. McCowen works with her, in a rather drab off-season coast hotel. He proposes a rather novel arrangement wherein they would pretend to be married in order to gain employment at a more upscale residential hotel. She agrees. Then after a while things take a subtle, then slightly more alarming turn. Who, exactly, is the crazy one here?

This is one of those understated British dramas that require you to watch closely. It's not Hitchcock, but when I saw what was happening in the last few scenes, it surprised me. These are two actors at the top of their powers and they pack a lot into this quiet little play.

After several less than satisfying episodes, this is a definite change. Charles Rocket returns in his final appearance as David's brother Richard "the Ad-Man" Addison. Richie is seeing Carla (Rita Wilson guesting) who turns out to have an unsavory past. Maddie and David visit some modeling agencies, supposedly to locate someone who stole a huge sum from Carla, giving Maddie a chance to be recognized and feel over the hill too. We get to see David mugging as a model too which is fun.

As the episode progresses, it turns out that Richie already knows about Carla's history and doesn't care but the episode shows the dramatic side of the late great Charles Rocket, who had a tragic end in real life too. Bruce Willis and Rocket clearly had a natural rapport and if you're paying attention you realize that some of the dialogue between them was so natural it was ad libbed perhaps. The ending is bittersweet.