The Falklands Play (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Michael Samuels

Writer:

Ian Curteis (writer)

Release Date:

10 April 2002 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Twenty years ago, Britain went to war to regain the Falkland Islands. The Falklands Play is a gripping...

Plot Keywords:

Britain | Falklands | Falkland Islands | Argentina | South Georgia Island

Cast

Patricia Hodge	...	Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher MP (Prime Minister)
James Fox	...	Rt Hon Peter, 6th Baron Carrington KCMG MC (Foreign Secretary)
John Standing	...	Rt Hon William Whitelaw CH MC MP (Home Secretary)
Michael Cochrane	...	Rt Hon Nicholas Ridley MP (Financial Secretary to the Treasury)
Jeremy Child	...	Rt Hon Francis Pym MC MP (Lord President of the Council / Foreign Secretary)
Rupert Vansittart	...	Sir Robert Armstrong (Cabinet Secretary)
Jonathan Coy	...	Richard Luce MP (Minister of State, Foreign Office)
Clive Merrison	...	Rt Hon John Nott MP (Secretary of State for Defence)
Peter Blythe	...	Rt Hon Sir Michael Havers QC MP (Attorney-General)
Jeremy Clyde	...	Sir Nicholas Henderson (HM Ambassador to the United States)
Colin Stinton	...	Alexander Haig (US Secretary of State)
Shaughan Seymour	...	Adm. Sir Henry Leach (First Sea Lord)
Anthony Calf	...	Robin Fearn (Head of Falkland Islands Department, Foreign Office)
Jasper Jacob	...	John Wilkinson MP (Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Nott)
Richard Cordery	...	Tom Enders (US Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Michael Cochrane (Nicholas Ridley) later appeared in two other BBC political dramas focussing on Margaret Thatcher: Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008) (TV) and Margaret (2009) (TV), in which he played Sir Waldron Smithers and Alan Clark respectively.

Quotes:

Alexander Haig: We are trying to de-escalise a war.
Margaret Thatcher: So am I. But you do not do it by appeasement. You increase its chances. You see this table? This was where Neville Chamberlain sat in 1938 when he spoke on the wireless about the Czechs as "far away people about whom we know nothing and with whom we have so little in common". Munich! Appeasement! A world war followed because of that irresponsible, woolly-minded, indecisive, slip-shod attitude and the deaths of 45 million people.
Tom Enders: The fact that we have to treat Britain and Argentina even-handedly for the purpose of negotiation...
[...]

So one sided it almost defies the laws of physics

I've seen this garbage twice now and I still can't believe how it's being promoted as a great guide to what went on behind the scenes.

Are we really supposed to believe that a world leader who has had Pinochet round for tea would seriously denounce Argentina as a corrupt country that brutally suppresses political dissent? This is practically a love letter to Margaret Thatcher! The writer has so obvious an agenda it ruins what could otherwise be seen as a great work of fiction.

It even manages to undermine it's own efforts to portray Thatcher in a more favourable light. Apparently it is true that she took the time to write letters to the next of kin of all the British fatalities. But then the writer goes and ruins it by showing more stupid scenes of Thatcher raving about Argentina's human rights record.

If you want to know the type of movie Goebbels may have written about Hitler's crushing of Polish aggression in 1939 you only have to watch this execrable pack of lies.

A remarkable piece of propoganda. Dreadful, dreadful rubbish.