The Crown: Season 2, Episode 6- Vergangenheit

"He's shouting, darling. Only zealots shout."

This is, perhaps, the finest episode so far, and rich in its themes of duty and (not narrowly religious)  faith.

It's obvious to those of us with vague knowledge of the Duke of Windsor's wartime activites that the two plot threads- David's desire to return from exile and do some useful work to free him from a life of empty decadence versus the looming forced publication of secret wartime papers linked to the toyals and, as we see in the flashback with George VI, are a source of great shame- are linked. And so the overall plot, as Elizabeth learns the full truth (perhaps) from Tommy Lascelles and ultimately exiles him forever, plays out superbly, with excellent dramatic beats and superb characterisation throughout.

Except the episode is even better than that. There are so many superb touches, from Tommy Lascelles preciousness with his miniature troops (the geek), to the quote above- given the wider themes of the episode, is the Queen Mother comparing Billy Graham to Hitler, as least in the limited sense that demagoguery is not a good thing? Yet the presence of Graham here- and the Queen's interest in him- provide a contrast between the dutiful and deeply conscientious Christian sovereign and the life of empty luxury and fundamental tackiness led by her flighty uncle in Paris. We last see Elizabeth kneeling in prayer, while we last see David giving a look of profound alienation as he suffers yet another party. Alex Jennings is superb here.

The first scene between Elizabeth and Graham is superb, too. I'm not someone capable of faith myself (show me empiiacal proof that God exists and I'll believe, but don't just tell me there's an invisible man who lives in the sky and not expect a raised eyebrow) but the desire of the Head of the Church of England to be a "simple Christian" is touching. Although nowhere near as good as the revelation that Phil has been getting bladdered with the Queen Mum and Tommy Lascelles.

Is what Tommy Lascelles says about Edward VIII literally true? I'm sure to a large extent it is, but in full? Was David significantly worse than his brother for hob-nobbing with Nazis in the 1930s, when the Holocaust was unsuspected but it was already clear Hitler was a cruel dictator, whatever sympathies one may have had for Germany after Versailles? I'm no expert. But this is a supetlative hour of telly.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

"They're laughing anyway, kid. So might as well get paid."

This is notorious, of course, for being the film that critics utterly despised yet going on to become a massive word-of-mouth hit. Having now seen it I can see why it did well; it’s very well-shot and choreographed. Nevertheless, I didn’t like the songs at all as they sound like contemporary  chart pop with all the unlistenable production that implies, but some people must like chart pop.

This is a musical about Phineas T. Barnum, a figure whose life I know only in broad strokes and who is famous these days mainly for the apocryphal “there’s a sucker born every minute”. But the film presents him, Hugh Jackman’s charm and his being a good family man aside, as a deeply exploitative bastard who exploits those with actual talent- even if the “talent” is to be a dwarf or bearded woman- in order to make himself rich. He’s no better than Simon Cowell, a deeply unpleasant individual who uses, abuses and discards people and is a morally disgusting beast of a human being. When he finally abandons his “freaks” for a night, not wanting them to be seen by his posh mates as he puts on a big opera do, we see how little they mean to him in spite of giving him his fortune, and the bearded lady gets an uplifting song. Yet later on, in a perverse type of Stockholm syndrome, when Barnum nearly loses everything they insist on staying as part of the “family”. This is very uncomfortable to see.

And perhaps that’s it; it’s superbly directed and very well made, and well acted in spite of the central character’s surprising blandness, and I suppose the songs are aimed at people who can stand modern chart pop- they certainly aren’t show tunes- but I’m not sure what the script is trying to do. It seems to want to be a simple, escapist melodrama but you can’t really deal with the theme of “freak shows” without having something coherent to say about them, and this film doesn’t. It’s very well made by it’s largely Australian crew, but in the end it’s a largely empty experience.