- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Alison Graham
Writer William Ivory’s unabashedly sentimental fact-based drama about plucky rowers Bert Bushnell and Dickie Burnell, who won gold in the double sculls rowing at the 1948 London Olympics, will bring a tear to your eye and make you proud to be British.
You probably won’t even mind feeling that you have been thoroughly manipulated by a story about jolly well pushing yourself to your limits to make your dad proud. Well, it made me cry.
There’s a class division too, always a BBC1 drama favourite: Bert (Matt Smith) is a working-class young man who’s chippy and rude when he first meets his sculling partner, Dickie Burnell (Sam Hoare). Dickie is Eton and Oxford educated and a member of the Leander Club (the rowing equivalent of the MCC). But – you can see this coming, I know you can – they soon bury their differences as they power through exhaustion to find glory.
About this programme
Doctor Who star Matt Smith swaps his sonic screwdriver for a set of oars in this timely fact-based drama about the 1948 London Olympics, an event that grew out of the country's determination to recover from the Second World War. It focuses on the story of Bert Bushnell and Dickie Burnell, rowers from either side of the class divide who are thrown together just a few weeks before the Games. Although both are experienced oarsmen, neither has competed in the double sculls, leading to a month of intensive training during which they push themselves to physical and emotional limits as they chase their dream of bagging gold. Sam Hoare co-stars, with James Frain, Douglas Hodge and Geoffrey Palmer.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Bert Bushnell
- Matt Smith
- Richard Burnell
- Sam Hoare
- Charles Burnell
- Geoffrey Palmer
- John Bushnell
- Douglas Hodge
- Harold Wilson
- Thomas Arnold
- Mervyn Wood
- Matt Barber
- Lord Aberdare
- John Bird
- Albert
- Ron Cook
- Frank
- Don Cotter
- Jack Beresford
- James Frain
- Lena Bushnell
- Anastasia Hille
- Lord Burghley
- Adrian Lukis
- Clement Attlee
- Clive Merrison
- Rosalind Burnell
- Alexandra Moen
- Mr Hawkins
- Graham Padden
- Richard Winstone
- Harper Ray
- Tam the copper
- Clive Russell
- Margaret
- Sara Vickers
- `Jack' Kelly
- Nathan Wiley
- Leander doorman
- James Benson
- Helper 1
- Lindsay Allen
- Helper 2
- Michael Dylan
- Steward
- Brian Shelley
- AA man
- Marcus Taylor
- Henley commentator
- Robert Treharne Jones
Crew
- Director
- David Blair
- Producer
- Chrissy Skins
- Writer
- William Ivory
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