Quite beloved for her TV comic work or her delicious performances on stage in England and America, Dame Patricia Routhledge is a world treasure. Having heard the cast album of "Darling of the Day" and seen her on a video of Ruth in "The Pirates of Penzance", I was amazed by her ability to connect with live audiences, always wanting to break into applause after hearing her voice while performing the Jule Styne/E. Y. Harburg songs of "Darling of the Day", a role that fellow British comic and musical legend Gracie Fields had played in "Holy Matrimony" on screen. But I had never seen her in a dramatic role before, and here, my heart breaks for her real life character Mrs. Bowler who spent time in prison for a crime she was innocent of.
Accused of murdering her late husband's aunt, Mrs. Bowler seems resigned to her fate, emotionally empty as her world falls apart. The gentle lady, with only her cello playing daughter and son in law to support her and an old acquaintance with experience in fighting the legal system , she decides to appeal for justice and find out what happened so she can be cleared. But it's going to be a rough road, not only for her but the journalists hoping to get the family to crack. This British TV movie shows how lives are turned upside down when the court system fails. Routhledge is stunning in performance, heart, strength and perseverance, winning the admiration of the prison staff, and the supporting cast is fine as well. But it's plots like this that are anger inducing on many levels, not many of them overturned until too many years later.
Accused of murdering her late husband's aunt, Mrs. Bowler seems resigned to her fate, emotionally empty as her world falls apart. The gentle lady, with only her cello playing daughter and son in law to support her and an old acquaintance with experience in fighting the legal system , she decides to appeal for justice and find out what happened so she can be cleared. But it's going to be a rough road, not only for her but the journalists hoping to get the family to crack. This British TV movie shows how lives are turned upside down when the court system fails. Routhledge is stunning in performance, heart, strength and perseverance, winning the admiration of the prison staff, and the supporting cast is fine as well. But it's plots like this that are anger inducing on many levels, not many of them overturned until too many years later.