Children of the Revolution

A third season of the foul-mouthed, violent and bracingly bonkers take on the Romans in Britain offers up changes aplenty and another tasty soundtrack of folk-pop classics

Britannia Season 3

Created by Jez Butterworth, UK 2021

Acorn Media, £24.99 (DVD)

The outrageously brilliant series about the Roman invasion of Britain (reviewed FT392:66) has now reached season 3 – or, as the title has it, BritannIIIa.

Teenager Cait (Eleanor Worthington Cox), the Chosen One in Druid prophecies that she would unite the British tribes against Rome, has moved way beyond her maverick teacher Divis’s training and has become toughened, self-assured and at times fierce. Threatened by someone, she grabs him and says: “Now turn around and walk away with both balls”; he does. She encounters General Aulus’s former Præfectus Lucius (Hugo Speer), now a renegade, and learns more of the spear that he used to end the life of an unnamed man on a cross outside Jerusalem. And she forms an unlikely but brilliant alliance with Queen Antedia (Zoë Wanamaker), who is as stroppy as ever.

Almost everyone’s status has been undermined. The former Canti prince Phelan (Julian Rhind-Tutt), now renamed Quant, is an apprentice Druid (and as wet as ever), under the unsympathetic training of the outcast Divis (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). Former Canti queen Amena (Annabel Scholey) is under Aulus’s thumb

Expect a lot of swearing, a lot of brutal killing and outstanding acting

as his mistress; former Regni queen Antedia is now a skivvy to a motley crew of ex-Roman soldiers; while Druid leaderVeran (Mackenzie Crook) seems about to breathe his last, after Cait slashes his throat in the first episode.

But the biggest change is in Roman General Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey), almost the only historical character in Britannia (Steve Pemberton played the Emperor Claudius briefly in season two). Usually tough, arrogant, ruthless (yet charming), he is emasculated by the arrival of his wife Hemple, terrifyingly portrayed by Sophie Okonedo: “That is Aulus Plautius, an empty suit of armour, a put-on, washout, no-show, a vain, preening, disappointing, flabby, floppy failure.” It’s through Hemple that we learn the source of Aulus’s power and the depth of his commitment and subservience to the god Lokka – horrifyingly, through human sacrifice and cannibalism.

To say any more would reveal too much. Expect a lot of swearing, a lot of brutal killing, a lot of betrayal (right through to the shocking end of the final episode) and outstanding acting. Above all, it’s great fun.

One of the many weirdnesses of Britannia is its music. The theme tune in season one was Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and in season two his “Season of the Witch”; this time it’s T Rex’s “Children of the Revolution”, though Donovan isn’t abandoned entirely; his rare and beautiful “River Song” appears in one episode. Other music includes the Zombies’ gorgeous “Time of the Season”, songs by Blind Faith and Ten Years After and a lovely version of “Wild Mountain Thyme”. I want the soundtrack album of the whole series!

Will there be a season four? The ending, with its increasing Christian references including the chilling “One of them will betray you”, is climactic – but whether it’s The End, or it presages a major shift in future direction, there is, at the time of writing, no word. David V Barrett

★★★★★

Repeat

Dir Grant Archer, Richard Miller, UK 2021

On digital platforms.

Repeat is a modest but highly effective British sci-fi thriller which takes a simple premise and develops it into a mind-bending idea of which I think Philip Dick would have approved.

Ryan Moore (Tom England) is a university lecturer whose marriage is failing because of the stress brought about by his daughter’s recent disappearance. Throwing himself into his work, he has discovered what he believes to be a scientific method of contacting, and speaking to, the dead. It genuinely works, if only for a brief period. To lengthen the time available to converse with the departed, Ryan’s equipment needs to be powered by a toxic substance that is kept locked away on the university campus.

Realising he may be able to solve the mystery of his daughter’s disappearance by contacting her via his breakthrough, Ryan starts stealing the material and working with it at home.

I won’t say any more about the story because there are juicy twists and turns along the way, and as this is a film I can heartily recommend I don’t want to rob it of its impact. What I will say is that the fantastical central idea is contrasted well with the reality of a strained marriage, the day-to-day life of a university, and other details that ground the film in a recognisable world. Similarly, it doesn’t rely – no doubt for budgetary reasons – on big special effects to entertain. Instead, the story drives the film forward – less common these days than you might think. Ryan’s discoveries are simultaneously our discoveries; the film doesn’t play games with the audience by withholding revelations to keep us in the dark, and instead the viewer learns things about the story at the same time as the characters do.

With a limited budget the seams do show occasionally: the acting can be a bit clunky, but the leads are fine. I can’t say I was familiar with most of the cast, which explains why the only name I did know – former Eastenders and Strictly star Nina Wadia – features prominently in the promotional material despite having only about five minutes of screen time.

Ultimately, Repeat provides what we all want from a film: a strong story, grippingly told, and a barnstorming climax. With cinemas dominated by movies costing up to half a billion dollars, this is a useful reminder that fantasy films can be made for a tiny fraction of that and still deliver the goods effectively.

Daniel King

★★★★ ★