Restless - BBC1 espionage thriller based on William Boyd

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought Part 1 of this last night was exceptional http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0108tpb

Anyone with a taste for spy and WW2 dramas shouldn't miss out!! The second and final 90 minute part on BBC1 tonight at 9pm

Strongly recommended! For those who enjoy a good Rample, Charlotte is really really good in this. And M Gambon appeared in the very final scene of Part 1...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Seconded!

[Cheapskater]

Thirded

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Fourthed et seq!!!

[Anna]

I had intended to watch - but - got waylaid. No time to catch up with Episode 1 today, will watch both episodes over the weekend on iplayer (I see it is available until January 4th) Thanks for recommendations!

[Serial_Apologist]

Have to admit, when the Face of Gambon turned round at the end of last night's episode, I thought, oh no...

But I will watch tonight's - question is, do I really care? Answer: there ain't nuttin else.

[EdgeleyRob]

How do you guys find the time to watch so much TV ?

[Anna]

How do you guys find the time to watch so much TV ?

We lead sad lives, not yet having discovered the love of our lives? ..........

[EdgeleyRob]

We lead sad lives, not yet having discovered the love of our lives? ..........

I only watch football and the occasional music programme (proms etc).
I'd rather listen to music than watch anything else.
Maybe I'm the sad one.

[teamsaint]

I only watch football and the occasional music programme (proms etc).
I'd rather listen to music than watch anything else.
Maybe I'm the sad one.

I am in the same team as you,E R.
last film I went to was the Ray Charles film,can't remember the last tv series I watched.

[mercia]

just enjoying part 2 on the Iplayer, pretty gripping stuff - looks very stylish/authentic - great for carspotters I would think
they've succeeded in keeping the tension going - I should think the book is a great page-turner

[Dave2002]

just enjoying part 2 on the Iplayer, pretty gripping stuff - looks very stylish/authentic - great for carspotters I would think
they've succeeded in keeping the tension going - I should think the book is a great page-turner


[by the way did anyone see The Girl, about the Hitchcock/Tipi Hedren relationship ?]

The book is indeed a very good read. I felt the TV version made some changes, and cut some sections out, and perhaps the sequencing wasn't quite the same, but overall it was very good. I don't read very many books - other than factual books - but I knew within a minute or two that this was based on something I'd read. Unless you read extremely fast, the TV version will take up less of your life than the book. I recommend both the TV film and the book.

I wonder where it was filmed. Apparently a team from South Africa was involved, according to the credits, though the shots of Scotland and New Mexico looked reasonably genuine to me.

A Good Man in Africa is also worth checking out and it has what might be called humour or comedy - and I see there has been a film of that too.

[DracoM]

Rampling / Gambon face-off glacial and terrific. What a regal presence she is, and those eyes!!

[Resurrection Man]

I am a great fan of William Boyd and read Restless (twice) and have to confess to being a little disappointed with this TV dramatisation. There are some good parts..I particularly liked the juxtaposition of the editing towards the end of Part One where young Eva and Eva's daughter were both on their way for what could be a pivotal meeting. But I feel that there was a lot in the book that was left out and somehow it, for me, lacked pace. Yet to see Part Two.

And why didn't they choose an actress with blue eyes as young Eva?

Mind you, I could watch Charlotte all evening.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just a couple of niggles; but didn't Eva's daughter refer to Lucas as "the sixth man"? In the early - mid-'70s? I thought the expression "fourth man" wasn't used until after Blunt's exposure in 1979 and "fifth man" until the '90s?

And why was Alfie shot? Wouldn't a blow to the head have worked as effectively and be more in character?

BUT what a great final scene: Eva gazing through her binoculars for assassins - never safe, justifiably paranoid for the rest of her life (was she ever in any danger: Lucas sounded genuinely bewildered when Eva told him about the [imagined?] attempts on her life? But then he might have been lying?) and also scared for her daughter & grandson, too.