MAKE ENOUGH NOISE AND YOU’LL AWAKE THE PAST.
After his London career implodes, journalist Tom Ronstadt (John Simm) returns to Lancashire where his father (Jim Broadbent) is suffering from Alzheimer’s… but inside his mind lie clues to a scandal that would shock the community. State of Play writer Paul Abbott reunited with the star of that miniseries, Simm, for another TV thriller that suffers a little bit from the fact that the scandal turns out to be pretty underwhelming. Still, what makes it compelling is the two lead performances, Simm as the screwed-up reporter who learns a lot about himself, and Broadbent as the father who still casts a long shadow. Well-paced, involving ā and ultimately touching.
2011-Britain. Made for TV. 180 min. Color. Produced byĀ Karen Lewis. Directed byĀ John Alexander. Teleplay: Paul Abbott, Daniel Brocklehurst. Cast: John Simm (Tom Ronstadt), Jim Broadbent (Sam Ronstadt), Olivia Colman (Nancy Ronstadt), John Paul Hurley, Claire Goose, Timothy West.
Trivia: Shown on TV in either two or three parts.Ā
Last word: “I had a raging confrontation that I wanted to have with somebody which (I now personally know) there was no value to confront. But I don’t know what to do with the rage. Intellectually I know it would do no good. I sat there wondering how to deal with it and so eventually you do go back to confront the problem, and you can’t not expect a volcano when everything has been neutralised for so long ā and that’s where ‘Exile’ started from.Ā In the opening of ‘Exile’, John Simm’s character has a huge explosion and fall out at work and that propels him to go and see his dad.Ā Forced out of his job, he goes home, where no one can find him; as home is the one place he’s never discussed with his mates because he pretended he didn’t belong in his past, and no-one knows that side of him.” (Abbott, BBC)
ABOVE AVERAGE