Last night's Alan Clark Diaries on BBC 4 was something of a disappointment. Not because the acting or script were inferior - they weren't. But it all looked so cheap and nasty. Watching this you'd think nobody actually worked in Whitehall. Extras were obviously a bit too much for the budget, so every corridor was weirdly empty. The crucial scene, in which Clark made a speech in the House of Commons after drinking several bottles of wine, was a disaster. There was no attempt at a set which resembled Parliament, no wide shots, no cutaways. Just John Hurt with a couple of faces behind him. When Clare Short intervened to point out that Clark was "incapable" we didn't even get to see the actress - just heard her voice.
Meanwhile, an interesting bubble-bursting exercise on Clark the man from Boyd Tonkin in the Independent.
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