Rob Brydon starred is this wonderfully put together dramatisation of a part of the acclaimed critic's life when he was being ousted from the National Theatre and was trying to put on his "erotic review" Oh Calcutta!
I can't say that I knew a great deal about Tynan before I saw this programme - I think I had it in my mind that he was gay. He wasn't, but he did have certain S&M tendencies which he quite openly talked about - perhaps too openly. He seems to have been a character who wore his heart on his sleeve and said what he thought, politics be damned.
Brydon was great as part of a smallish cast, as you might expect from a BBC Four production. Julian Sands played Olivier in a very uptight manner. He certainly wasn't as he'd appear on screen around that time, and although he seemed to like Tynan, you could tell that he disapproved of him. Catherine McCormack played Tynan's wife Kathleen, who seemed long suffering in her acceptance of his ways and manners.
After the play, we had a documentary about Tynan's life, and it became obvious that the dramatisation had contracted several years into a shorter period, with Tynan's illness.
Posted by adambowie at March 4, 2005 02:21 PM