Thoughts on Dancing on the Edge (III)
Well, I come at last to the final “bonus episode” of Stephen Poliakoff’s Dancing on the Edge and I’m actually a little sorry to finish it. Whilst watching and writing about the five part (plus one) miniseries, I really came to enjoy the characters, the mystery and the style of the drama, and there was just enough loose ends left dangling to keep you pondering for a while afterwards. As it turns out, this bonus episode only introduces more questions, but it’s still a satisfying little glimpse into the secretive world that Poliakoff constructed for his characters to inhabit (plus, extra Angel Coulby!)
The bonus episode involves Stanley interviewing Louis, Carla and Jessie about their backgrounds, providing more insight on their lives than the rest of the show combined. Yet he finds himself losing control of each interview, with Carla and Jessie leading him back to Louis so that he can recount his strange experiences with “the woman” who rings him from within the hotel under a false name, insisting that she has something very important to share with him.
In fact, you can watch it right here:
The episode itself is like a microcosm of the miniseries: it starts off with a sluggish pace, only to hook you in without you even realizing it. As the halfway mark it suddenly introduces an element that grows in intrigue and tension as the run-time goes on, and - though I can’t speak for everyone - I was fairly riveted by the end.
The actors (especially at the beginning) are obviously having trouble with such long, rambling monologues, sharing long-winded anecdotes that seemed to have emerged at random from Stephen Poliakoff’s brain (complete with the ridiculous cliché of faint sounds of children playing when the characters reminiscence about their childhoods). People just don’t talk like this, but if any actors are going to even get close to pulling it off, it’s these ones.
There’s some interesting give-and-take between Louis and Stanley on the subject of jazz, racism, prejudice and the safety of the band, which again, is discussed more explicitly here than it was in the miniseries itself. Louis has some insights to share about how people: “don’t like the idea of me being English” and who are continually asking him: “when are you going back to America?” as well as the fact that white people find jazz exotic and that he’s able to eavesdrop on private conversations because he’s treated as part of the furniture (this is presumably why “the woman” decides to share her story specifically with him, even though Louis himself doesn't realize it).
Louis’s calm and unruffled demeanour is explicitly identified as a coping mechanism (yes, I knew it!), one which contrasts with Stanley’s more impatient and optimistic take on race relationships, and I got a really nice sense of their chemistry and friendship here. Both of them almost seem slightly exasperated with the other, and on recalling the miniseries, this was actually a staple part of their dynamic.
Stanley also interviews Carla (again, I’m sure that Wunmi Mosaku gets more focus here than she did for the entirety of the miniseries) revealing herself as more open and talkative than Jessie, despite Jessie being the more dominant figure in the subtleties of their friendship. Stanley eventually gets to Jessie, describing her as “a mysterious little creature” that “seemed to have emerged into the world fully formed.” Finally, by acknowledging that, and revealing that she’s initially very reluctant to talk about herself, she becomes less of a cypher than she was in the show.
Plus I really do love Angel’s performance here; the way she fiddles with the corner of the box, the way she asks questions of Stanley as though testing herself by testing him, and how she comes across as strangely shy yet self-assured at the same time. No wonder Julian was smitten.
Finally we get to Louis’s recount of the mysterious women over the telephone. At first he considers her a bored white woman playing a silly game, but as their mostly one-sided conversation goes on (complete with a testimonial from Pamela to validate her sincerity) Louis begins to get roped in to what “Josephine” is telling him - about the last war, the Freemasons and their mysterious “Fluke”. The actress is great, initially sounding like a floozy and a tease whilst gradually infusing her story with more and more urgency and fear. It has the expected effect on Louis: he can dismiss her as a slightly mad woman, but not so much that he just forgets about her.
That Louis is in danger from these phone calls is clear (we’re reminded early on that in America Louis could be hanged for sleeping with a white woman, and it’s a chilling moment when Josephine’s husband picks up the line and demands to know who’s on the other end), yet by the end we’re left with a lingering question as to what really happened to her and to what extent she’s telling the truth.
Poliakoff makes an interesting decision when he portrays “Josephine” on-screen instead of just as a voice on the other end of the receiver. Of course, maybe he had no real choice in this, as an audience isn’t going to be enthralled by the sound of a voice on the telephone and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s confused/intrigued face. But in showing Josephine to us, the audience is privy to information that Louis isn’t; namely that she seems to be telling the truth about the elaborate anecdote that she’s retelling, and that final scene of her, presumably naked and terrified, asking Louis to “pray for me” is genuinely chilling, all the more so because Louis and Stanley tentatively dismiss her story.
She's obviously in some mysterious sort of danger, but I have to say that final scene really stumped me. The only thing that comes to mind was that the Freemasons were preparing her as some sort of “sacrifice”, but that’s beyond ridiculous. Also, why would they give her access to a telephone? Honestly, I’m stumped at what we were meant to make of that. Any thoughts?
Yet the theme that emerged from this was of people trying to tell other people important things, only to be met with a sense of casual dismissal. Stanley never seemed hugely interested in what Louis, Carla and Jessie were saying - that is, I got the sense that he was rooting about for a story and getting frustrated at their seemingly-irrelevant anecdotes and insistence on things being “off the record.” And Josephine’s story is actually a third-hand account of what may or may not have happened: her husband tells her, she tells Louis and Louis tells Stanley, leading to the men wondering how much of it was accurate. It’s about the flow and sharing of important information, much of which is forgotten or misinterpreted or set aside. It’s difficult to communicate with other people, but once in a while a sliver of the truth will get through and someone will take action, as we saw with Stanley deciding to investigate the story of this “Fluke” in more detail.
Bits and Pieces
Louis mentions that Wesley was “deported over a year ago” which puts the time-frame of the miniseries into a much larger context than I had been previously thought.
Behind Stanley at 23:45 is a photograph of Carla and Jessie with their arms around each other and their heads together. I want a better look at it! Why wasn’t it released like all the rest of Sarah’s photographs?
The episode also includes a little cameo from Pamela, once again exhibiting her boredom and idealism, frustration and insight, and apathetic exterior masking a passionate core. She definitely emerged from this as my favourite character.
I also think (hope) that this was a good opportunity for Angel Coulby, appearing so quickly on the heels of Merlin in a role that was completely divorced from Guinevere (she actually brought this up in one of the interviews for Dancing on the Edge). Being a familiar character in a cult TV show/film is the easiest way to get typecast, but it looks as though she’s neatly dodged that pitfall.
So that was Dancing on the Edge. Like I said, now that it’s over, I’m a little sad to see it go, and this was a nice little coda to the show.
The bonus episode involves Stanley interviewing Louis, Carla and Jessie about their backgrounds, providing more insight on their lives than the rest of the show combined. Yet he finds himself losing control of each interview, with Carla and Jessie leading him back to Louis so that he can recount his strange experiences with “the woman” who rings him from within the hotel under a false name, insisting that she has something very important to share with him.
In fact, you can watch it right here:
Click to viewThe episode itself is like a microcosm of the miniseries: it starts off with a sluggish pace, only to hook you in without you even realizing it. As the halfway mark it suddenly introduces an element that grows in intrigue and tension as the run-time goes on, and - though I can’t speak for everyone - I was fairly riveted by the end.
The actors (especially at the beginning) are obviously having trouble with such long, rambling monologues, sharing long-winded anecdotes that seemed to have emerged at random from Stephen Poliakoff’s brain (complete with the ridiculous cliché of faint sounds of children playing when the characters reminiscence about their childhoods). People just don’t talk like this, but if any actors are going to even get close to pulling it off, it’s these ones.
There’s some interesting give-and-take between Louis and Stanley on the subject of jazz, racism, prejudice and the safety of the band, which again, is discussed more explicitly here than it was in the miniseries itself. Louis has some insights to share about how people: “don’t like the idea of me being English” and who are continually asking him: “when are you going back to America?” as well as the fact that white people find jazz exotic and that he’s able to eavesdrop on private conversations because he’s treated as part of the furniture (this is presumably why “the woman” decides to share her story specifically with him, even though Louis himself doesn't realize it).
Louis’s calm and unruffled demeanour is explicitly identified as a coping mechanism (yes, I knew it!), one which contrasts with Stanley’s more impatient and optimistic take on race relationships, and I got a really nice sense of their chemistry and friendship here. Both of them almost seem slightly exasperated with the other, and on recalling the miniseries, this was actually a staple part of their dynamic.
Stanley also interviews Carla (again, I’m sure that Wunmi Mosaku gets more focus here than she did for the entirety of the miniseries) revealing herself as more open and talkative than Jessie, despite Jessie being the more dominant figure in the subtleties of their friendship. Stanley eventually gets to Jessie, describing her as “a mysterious little creature” that “seemed to have emerged into the world fully formed.” Finally, by acknowledging that, and revealing that she’s initially very reluctant to talk about herself, she becomes less of a cypher than she was in the show.
Plus I really do love Angel’s performance here; the way she fiddles with the corner of the box, the way she asks questions of Stanley as though testing herself by testing him, and how she comes across as strangely shy yet self-assured at the same time. No wonder Julian was smitten.
Finally we get to Louis’s recount of the mysterious women over the telephone. At first he considers her a bored white woman playing a silly game, but as their mostly one-sided conversation goes on (complete with a testimonial from Pamela to validate her sincerity) Louis begins to get roped in to what “Josephine” is telling him - about the last war, the Freemasons and their mysterious “Fluke”. The actress is great, initially sounding like a floozy and a tease whilst gradually infusing her story with more and more urgency and fear. It has the expected effect on Louis: he can dismiss her as a slightly mad woman, but not so much that he just forgets about her.
That Louis is in danger from these phone calls is clear (we’re reminded early on that in America Louis could be hanged for sleeping with a white woman, and it’s a chilling moment when Josephine’s husband picks up the line and demands to know who’s on the other end), yet by the end we’re left with a lingering question as to what really happened to her and to what extent she’s telling the truth.
Poliakoff makes an interesting decision when he portrays “Josephine” on-screen instead of just as a voice on the other end of the receiver. Of course, maybe he had no real choice in this, as an audience isn’t going to be enthralled by the sound of a voice on the telephone and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s confused/intrigued face. But in showing Josephine to us, the audience is privy to information that Louis isn’t; namely that she seems to be telling the truth about the elaborate anecdote that she’s retelling, and that final scene of her, presumably naked and terrified, asking Louis to “pray for me” is genuinely chilling, all the more so because Louis and Stanley tentatively dismiss her story.
She's obviously in some mysterious sort of danger, but I have to say that final scene really stumped me. The only thing that comes to mind was that the Freemasons were preparing her as some sort of “sacrifice”, but that’s beyond ridiculous. Also, why would they give her access to a telephone? Honestly, I’m stumped at what we were meant to make of that. Any thoughts?
Yet the theme that emerged from this was of people trying to tell other people important things, only to be met with a sense of casual dismissal. Stanley never seemed hugely interested in what Louis, Carla and Jessie were saying - that is, I got the sense that he was rooting about for a story and getting frustrated at their seemingly-irrelevant anecdotes and insistence on things being “off the record.” And Josephine’s story is actually a third-hand account of what may or may not have happened: her husband tells her, she tells Louis and Louis tells Stanley, leading to the men wondering how much of it was accurate. It’s about the flow and sharing of important information, much of which is forgotten or misinterpreted or set aside. It’s difficult to communicate with other people, but once in a while a sliver of the truth will get through and someone will take action, as we saw with Stanley deciding to investigate the story of this “Fluke” in more detail.
Bits and Pieces
Louis mentions that Wesley was “deported over a year ago” which puts the time-frame of the miniseries into a much larger context than I had been previously thought.
Behind Stanley at 23:45 is a photograph of Carla and Jessie with their arms around each other and their heads together. I want a better look at it! Why wasn’t it released like all the rest of Sarah’s photographs?
The episode also includes a little cameo from Pamela, once again exhibiting her boredom and idealism, frustration and insight, and apathetic exterior masking a passionate core. She definitely emerged from this as my favourite character.
I also think (hope) that this was a good opportunity for Angel Coulby, appearing so quickly on the heels of Merlin in a role that was completely divorced from Guinevere (she actually brought this up in one of the interviews for Dancing on the Edge). Being a familiar character in a cult TV show/film is the easiest way to get typecast, but it looks as though she’s neatly dodged that pitfall.
So that was Dancing on the Edge. Like I said, now that it’s over, I’m a little sad to see it go, and this was a nice little coda to the show.