Any Human Heart (2010)

Recommended

UK/USA

Television Mini-Series

Director: Michael Samuels

Writer: William Boyd

Cinematographer: Wojciech Szepel

Composer: Dan Jones

Cast: Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen, Sam Claflin, Samuel West, Ed Stoppard, Hayley Atwell, Gillian Anderson, Tom Hollander, Kim Cattrall

A downtrodden old man remembers his life from horny undergraduate through years as a struggling author to his dog food-eating latter days, in William Boyd’s simultaneously brilliant, infuriating, and often downright ridiculous (though never less than entertaining) adaptation of his own novel, which – despite lasting more than five hours, five hours filled with sex, death, and twentieth century history – often feels rather rushed. Iain.Stott