THE STORY OF BORIS
Kenneth Branagh is the former British prime minister as the Covid pandemic loomed and he became a father for the sixth time
KENNETH Branagh is unrecognisable as Boris Johnson in Sky Atlantic’s new big-budget factual drama This England. The six-part series promises to tell the tale of the pandemic as well as the former British prime minister’s leadership. Joining Branagh is a stellar cast including up-and-coming actress Ophelia Lovibond as Boris’s wife Carrie.
The series will trace the impact of coronavirus and the response of scientists, nurses and doctors as they worked tirelessly and heroically to contain and overcome the virus. It will also profile ordinary people whose lives were thrown into turmoil.
Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, viewers are repeatedly reminded of Boris’s previous romantic partners, while his relationships with his older children are painfully portrayed as being difficult.
Boris’s former lovers appear in dreams. While he is asleep, a voice reminds him of his romance with the writer Petronella Wyatt, while film footage of blonde American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri is employed to haunt the then prime minister.
The series tells of Mr Johnson’s own battles with Covid and he is seen sweating while in intensive care and is portrayed as being fed water through a straw. During his stay in hospital, viewers will see him have deathbed dreams involving his ex-wife Marina Wheeler and daughters,
Branagh’s mimicry of Mr Johnson is charismatic — employing his experience as a Shakespearean actor to ape Boris’s love of quoting the Bard at times of crisis.
The programme also features stage actor Simon Paisley Day as Dominic Cummings and Andrew
Buchan — star of ITV drama Broadchurch — as then health secretary Matt Hancock, as it documents how the two were at war during the pandemic.
The show includes Cummings’s infamous trip to Barnard Castle as well as depicting him and Lee Cain, Johnson’s former director of communications, behaving aggressively towards staff in No 10 Downing Street.
Mr Winterbottom left the production during filming due to ill health and was replaced by The Crown executive Julian Jarrold.
■ This England starts on Sky Atlantic on Wednesday at 9pm.