Writer William Nicholson (who’d go on to GLADIATOR/’00, LES MIZ/’12, currently THIRTEEN LIVES, about the boys soccer club rescued from a cave in Thailand) got his start triple-dipping into the unlikely, intensely moving love story of Oxford don C.S. Lewis (of NARNIA fame) and passionate American correspondent Joy Davidman (minor poet with two young sons). First seen as this tv film (for Joss Ackland & Claire Bloom); then as a play (on B’way with Nigel Hawthorne & Jane Alexander); finally as a well received film (Anthony Hopkins & Debra Winger; Richard Attenborough’s best work as director). And while Nicholson only came up with a perfect last line in the film rewrite (a real heart-stopper), all told, this modest tv film best gets to the core of Lewis’s Christian belief and the crisis of his initial happiness (with a lapsed Jew, of all people), discovering an unimagined aptitude for depth of love he never expected; and then its tragic loss. Ackland rarely got a shot at such a well-rounded, sympathetic role, warmth invading this crotchety, confirmed bachelor; while Bloom, whose work is far less an ethnic ‘character’ than Winger’s Davidman, matching Lewis in values, ideas & burgeoning affection. The pair obviously pleased at the reactions they arouse amongst his clubby fellows. Lovely work from the two boys (for some reason reduced to one in Attenborough’s film along with most of Lewis’s internal Christian reflection). And an infinitely touching display of moral & physical support from David Waller as Lewis’s sedentary brother Warnie, subtle to the point of near invisibility, but very much there. Like the film as a whole.
DOUBLE-BILL: Don’t undersell the larger-scaled film version. In slightly more commercial form, it’s excellent; if not without built in showbiz fizz, especially in the culture clash between Winger & Hopkins.
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