Life is sometimes stranger than fiction. The story of John Stonehouse is truly remarkable, the tale of a former government minister who faked his own suicide, but whose plan to build a new life in Australia was foiled when someone suspected he was Lord Lucan (a British aristocrat to disappeared around the same time, probably after murdering his children's nanny). This drama has already been criticised as inncurate by Stonehouse's family: they say he was never as wealthy as portrayed, was never a spy, and was suffering from mental breakdown when he disappeared. But regardless of accuracy, the choices made in this series are dramatically unsatisfying. You could tell a story of a man indeed undergoing mental disintegration; or of a brilliant fraudster; or simply the tale of someone who comes to find their position unbearable, and takes a wild gamble out of utter desperation. Instead, Stonehouse is presented as a preening, presumptious fool, and the story is played mostly for comedy. In fact, the drama resembles last year's programme about John Darwin, a much more obscure figure who also "did a Stonehouse". True or not, an extraordinary story is rendered dull if the basic explanation offered is simply that the protagonist was an idiot. That said, I did enjoy Kevin McNally's portrayal of Harold Wilson, the Labour leader cursed with having Stonehouse as one of his MPs.
Review of Stonehouse
