The Personal History of David Copperfield review

This charming film is not entirely what you might expect from Armando Iannucci whose reputation was made with dark comedic satire. Yet he has breathed life into this venerable tale giving it a contemporary spin only inasmuch as to show how identifiable a story it actually is. If for some reason you had no idea this was based on a book you might think it was penned recently as there’s nothing here that smells musty or old. Quite the contrary in fact- this adaptation is as fresh and enjoyable as run on the Yarmouth beach which provides one of its locales. But don’t accuse the director- who also co-writes with Simon Blackwell - of going soft as there is always a harder edge where Dickens is concerned.

Mojo

The Harold Pinter Theatre
Written by Jez Butterworth / Directed by Ian Rickson

Q, Ron Weasley, Mr Bates and Merlin get together – but someone else steals the show!

Not for the linguistically squeamish, Mojo is a play that rattles along at 200mph, characters barely catching their breath and sometimes even talking over each other. Jez Butterworth’s tale of seedy criminality in the summer of 1958 on the cusp of the rock and roll revolution is superficially macho. An all male cast of characters are boastfully riotous yet as matters proceed the artifice is lifted to reveal a bunch of scared, insecure people not necessarily ready to protect each other when things get tough. And they do get tough because before we’ve even met the manager of Ezra’s Atlantic club he has been cut in two. 

Q and Mr Bates begin their tango.

Peter and Alice

Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, two great actors from different generations, verbally spar over the gap between childhood and adulthood in a new play at London’s Noel Coward Theatre. 

John Logan’s new play imagines what was said when the real life inspirations for two classic children’s characters met. In truth the rendezvous in the 1930s was fleeting but Logan extrapolates what sort of things they could have discussed given their similar circumstances. Of course you first have to accept that both would be able to articulate their lives so cleverly and there are times when the verbal sparring is just too intellectual to be anything other than something a playwright would create. Yet seeing two great actors at work is something to treasure even if the narrative can sometimes be over indulgent.