Telly Talk: Mighty pen…

All stories can’t help but have something of the teller in them. Whether it’s CS Lewis accused of incorporating his religious beliefs into the tale of a magic lion, or a policeman reading from his notebook – something of the person is recorded in even the very selection of the words. This two-part drama telling the events that led up to and surrounded the mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan in 1974 is based on the book The Gamblers, by author John Pearson and based upon exhaustive interviews he conducted with those closest to Lucan at the time of his disappearance.
I don’t think he liked them much.

Perhaps it was the time, perhaps it was the class, perhaps it’s what happens when you send children away to avoid the blitz and then send them away to be educated, but this particular group of pals leapt off the page and into the most believable yet callously cold social ensemble I think I’ve ever witnessed.

Lord ‘Lucky’ Lucan was a professional gambler. As his old friend Susie recalls a remarkably unique perspective; you couldn’t expect to get a good hearing from a judge as they were all from middle class backgrounds and couldn’t possibly understand if a person didn’t work for a living. Cliquey and disdainful, the privileged members of the Clermont Club – a gambling and social establishment – closed ranks around Lucky when his marriage ran into trouble. Quite what that trouble was isn’t really clear, apart from his wife Veronica making demands that he spend some time with her and the children and join them in a place away from the Club. Again – is this simply a reflection of the times? Fathers weren’t particularly involved in domestic affairs in some quarters, so perhaps they both had different expectations as to how their relationship would play out.

Anyway, as Lucan decided that their marriage was irreconcilable their divorce proceedings became increasingly dirty, with quite despicable behaviour on his part as he tried to have her committed in a bid to gain sole custody of their three children. Behaviour that saw him focused to such a degree that events led to that fateful evening with such tragic consequences.

Something I have always firmly believed is that things in life are not black and white, people are not good or bad, and my difficulty here is that as fascinating as these characters are it’s hard to find a single redeemable feature.

I can’t fault the script, or the superb acting – Christopher Eccleston as Club leader John Aspinall is quite terrifying, and Rory Kinnear as Lucan himself compelling with his clipped annunciation and callous demeanour. But John Pearson, played quietly and sympathetically by Paul Freeman, as the interviewer who takes us back to those heady days as he gently teases more information from his fickle players, is almost suspicious by his very humanity towards the whole situation. It’s not his manner towards these people on screen that betrays his dislike, it’s the power he wealds as writer of the kit and caboodle. He has drawn them all, save for Lucan’s wife Veronica and the family’s nanny Sandra, as utterly horrible people. Not just Lucan – every one of his gang.

I prefer to think that nobody’s completely irredeemable. But then, it could be his time. Or it could be a celebrity culture. After all, Phil Collins allegedly faxed his divorce request to his wife in the 1990s. Matt Damon dumped Minnie Driver live on TV in an interview she was even a part of. Makes me count my blessings I’m a pleb. And maybe feel a little sorry for those who aren’t.

Lucan, ITV1, Wednesday 11 December 2013

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