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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Secret Smile

12:02 / 15.12.05

I don’t watch a lot of TV drama, and I don’t watch a huge amount of ITV, so my expectations of a two-part psychological thriller adapted from a Nicci French novel for ITV1 were subterranean. But I was wrong. I really enjoyed it and found it genuinely creepy, thought the central performances from David Tennant (Casanova) and Kate Ashfield (Shaun Of The Dead) were really solid, it was nicely paced and there was some great (mis)direction.

I thought it was interesting too in that it was, on the one hand quite bold, and quite un-ITV (the “I was just thinking… I’ve come in that mouth” line properly shocked me), but also strangely conservative and old fashioned with lots of positive reinforcement of middle-class values, the Family is sacred, promiscuity is punished with an Unimaginable Nightmare…
It was an interesting mix, I thought.

So, anyone else see it? Like it?

12:51 / 15.12.05

Yes, I saw it, and I liked it a lot.

Whilst I agree that it was, in part, conservative and old -fashioned (ITV, conservative? who would've thunk it?), I liked that women were most deffo the heroes, and that they were allowed to be more than victims who just happen to get out alive. Kate Ashfield's character's determination to bring down the Tennant character was really impressive.

I also liked the way it didn't slip into conventional stalker-thriller mode with the primary threat being simply physical violence. Tennant's loon had a wonderful believability about him in this day and age of personality disorders and con men masquerading as secret agents.

13:10 / 15.12.05

I agree. I know some people though it was a bit slow to get started, but I thought the pace was spot on. I liked the way that Tennant’s psychopathy was revealed gently, and without resorting to cut-aways of him doing private psychoey things. The viewer saw it as Miranda saw it. Greeting her on their frist date with “You’re late” was superb, I thought.

(By the way, is anyone yet to see both parts of this? Should we avoid spoilers?)

13:14 / 15.12.05

...Tennant’s psychopathy was revealed gently, and without resorting to cut-aways of him doing private psychoey things.

Yes, the cum line just wouldn't have worked half so well in they hadn't used the gently gently approach.

As for spoilers, both parts have aired - I reckon they're fair game.

13:37 / 15.12.05

Cool.

One of the things that impressed me most was the drinking thing. Watching the first episode, you begin to notice that everyone is drinking wine, constantly. Several scenes open with a close-up of a tray of wine glasses. Watching it, we were laughing about what a dipso the director must be. But it’s all just a trick to misdirect you from a crucial sleight in the final twist. She’s got to offer him a drink in that scene, and in any other drama, that would stick out like a sore thumb and trip all sorts of plot alarms. But after 3 hours of this, an offer of a wine glass barely registers. Very clever.

13:43 / 15.12.05

You know, I didn't spot how the constant drinking facilitated that final twist. I was wondering about the copious consumption of alcohol the whole way through, and managed not to put two and two together in the final reel.

14:07 / 15.12.05

Sorry, backing up a bit…

I liked that women were most deffo the heroes, and that they were allowed to be more than victims who just happen to get out alive.

I’m not sure that I agree, and this is one of the things that felt quite unmodern about it. Miranda aside, all the women are dreadful pushovers, aren’t they? Claire Goose was a veritable charicature of passive female victimhood. The mother just looked scared at the scary bits, sad at the sad bits and happy at any mention of a marriage, and the best friend was just another soppy, vapid, gullible cliché, powerless to resist Tennant’s not particularly obvious charms.

For an ITV drama, I thought this was remarkably down on women.

14:29 / 15.12.05

I’m not sure that I agree, and this is one of the things that felt quite unmodern about it. Miranda aside, all the women are dreadful pushovers, aren’t they? Claire Goose was a veritable charicature of passive female victimhood

I have to agree. I also found the whole plot to get Tenant arrested pretty lame. I mean anyone could see that she'd sprayed the blood about in a squidgey sauce bottle! The ending was a bit too nicely wrapped up as well - the family all together, no fall out or consequences of what had happened between the sisters, etc. And whilst I'm here, Claire Goose cannot act. All seemed like a vehicle for the main actors. Never read the book mind.

And I know I'm probably in a minority of one here, but has anyone noticed:

Richard Hammond

David Tenant

14:41 / 15.12.05

Probably bad form to name names, but there’s a much better Tennant lookalike much closer to Barbelith.

The plot to set him up for a murder he didn’t commit was interesting in lots of ways, I thought. Firstly, that it made the whole thing much more morally ambiguous. Using ends to justify means is hardly unproblematic, and you’ve got to ask yourself exactly what Brendan is definitely guilty of?

15:42 / 15.12.05

Probably bad form to name names, but there’s a much better Tennant lookalike much closer to Barbelith.

So I've heard. But does 'he who shall remain nameless' also look like a giant Richard Hammond?

The plot to set him up for a murder he didn’t commit was interesting in lots of ways, I thought. Firstly, that it made the whole thing much more morally ambiguous. Using ends to justify means is hardly unproblematic, and you’ve got to ask yourself exactly what Brendan is definitely guilty of?

Yeah, but then I remember an episode of The Bill having a similar storyline! I found it a tad improbable, but I 'spose that shouldn't get in the way of an ITV drama. I think It might work better as a book.

16:24 / 15.12.05

But does 'he who shall remain nameless' also look like a giant Richard Hammond?

No, but then I'm afraid I don't think David Tennant does either. Other than that he has two eyes, hair and so on.

I found it a tad improbable, but I 'spose that shouldn't get in the way of an ITV drama.

It's not the improbability that I was pointing out, and I certainly didn't think it got in the way. I meant I quite liked it because it raised the whole thing above 'plucky girl outsmarts evil stalker'. It was more nuanced and ambiguous than I expected of a drama with this provenance. Miranda does become quite obsessed with Brendan - she alienates Nick by talking about him endlessly, she continues to pursue him (in a not unstalkerish way) when he does finally get out of her life.

Meanwhile, she decides that he was responsible for Troy's death (for reasons that are never made clear and are far from obvious), she is convinced he killed Laura even though the police can find no evidence that he could have done so, and she fakes her own death, frames him for a murder that never happened and gets him sent down for life. Even Miranda's claim to 'hero' status is dubious, I'd have said. Know what I mean?