‘This England’: The series about Boris Johnson is not achieving its goals

Looking back at events of huge historical significance, such as the election of the US president, people usually try to understand how this came about. At a later stage, this understanding can be a deterrent from repeating the same mistakes. This is also the motivation behind most biopics, whether on the small or the big screen, which promise to look “behind the headlines”.

For example, Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the movie “The Iron Lady” gives us the illusion that we are learning the real woman behind the politician-mask. Something similar happens with the mini-series “This England”, which tries to capture what really happens behind the closed doors of (former, now) Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government, when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic arrives in United Kingdom.

Mix with… disappointing result

Pay-per-view channel Sky TV, which airs the series from 28 September 2022, is advertising it as a “drama based on real events”. The appeal of the case is that one can hear and see what really happens when the cameras are “closed”. Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh plays the British Prime Minister, who, however, is difficult to recognize due to his disguise. His performance is a mixture of jester and Shakespearean King Lear, tragic and absurd.

Even if the show’s title is borrowed from Shakespeare’s King Richard II, viewers hoping for a dose of Shakespearean drama and high politics will they have to look elsewhere. The series combines a lot of infighting that takes place during cabinet time and strategy meetings, while former chief adviser to the Prime Minister, Dominic Cummings, played by Simon Day, is often the “bad guy” case. At the same time, the series combines behind-the-scenes machinations with heroic stories of experts and scientists who are fighting against time to understand the virus, but also ordinary citizens who are fighting against COVID-19.

Absence of perception

The director and co-screenwriter of “This England”, Michael Winterbottom, has succeeded many times through his films to achieve a perfect cinematic result. But this time England looks like a historical mural, in which it tries to fit in a single frame as many stories as possible with the result being strangely superficial. Due to the scandals that follow the series, such as the second lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s inability to manage the pandemic, but also the so-called Partygate political scandal, for which there is no mention in the series, turn the series into an anachronistic one. Even if he tries to cover this gap with short news clippings at the end these efforts fall on deaf ears.

Despite the efforts of a deeper understanding of the British Prime Minister, the series does not contribute to this result. Director Michael Winterbottom, who is neither for nor against the prime minister, manages to show what happened during the first wave of COVID-19 in England under the leadership of Boris Johnson, but leaves some questions, such as why he made these moves and what alternatives were there.

DW – Scott Roxborough/ Iosifina Tsagalidou

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