Secret Life
FAO UK fans!
Matthew is starring in 'Secret Life', to be shown on Channel 4 tomorrow (Thursday 19/04/07) at 9pm - 10.30pm.
Radio Times Summary:
There's no point in beating around the bush - Secret Life is remorselessly gruelling viewing. But then, only a halfwit would expect a 90-minute drama about a paedophile to be life-enhancing or cheerful. In a remarkable change of direction from handsome, action-hero roles, Matthew Macfadyen (from Spooks) plays Charlie, a former swimming coach newly released from prison after serving a sentence for abusing three girls aged between seven and 12. Though Charlie vows never again to put a child at risk, so powerful is his compulsion that he sees temptations everywhere. He won't take a bus because there are schoolchildren on board, and a visit to the supermarket is fraught with potential disaster. Macfadyen is excellent as a man propelled by terrible desires, and Secret Life paints a bleak portrait of a paedophile sent back into a community that plainly doesn't want him, or any of his ilk. Shunned and largely unsupported, Charlie ends up battling his demons alone. There's a chilling sequence at a funfair where we see Charlie, a baby-faced man we've come to think of as affable and well-meaning, embark on a dreadful quest. A dark and unsettling conclusion will probably send you to bed upset, possibly even angry. It will almost certainly keep you awake.
Matthew is starring in 'Secret Life', to be shown on Channel 4 tomorrow (Thursday 19/04/07) at 9pm - 10.30pm.
Radio Times Summary:
There's no point in beating around the bush - Secret Life is remorselessly gruelling viewing. But then, only a halfwit would expect a 90-minute drama about a paedophile to be life-enhancing or cheerful. In a remarkable change of direction from handsome, action-hero roles, Matthew Macfadyen (from Spooks) plays Charlie, a former swimming coach newly released from prison after serving a sentence for abusing three girls aged between seven and 12. Though Charlie vows never again to put a child at risk, so powerful is his compulsion that he sees temptations everywhere. He won't take a bus because there are schoolchildren on board, and a visit to the supermarket is fraught with potential disaster. Macfadyen is excellent as a man propelled by terrible desires, and Secret Life paints a bleak portrait of a paedophile sent back into a community that plainly doesn't want him, or any of his ilk. Shunned and largely unsupported, Charlie ends up battling his demons alone. There's a chilling sequence at a funfair where we see Charlie, a baby-faced man we've come to think of as affable and well-meaning, embark on a dreadful quest. A dark and unsettling conclusion will probably send you to bed upset, possibly even angry. It will almost certainly keep you awake.