Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
LINDBERGH’S BIGGEST FLIGHT OF FANTASY
had already attracted intense criticism for accepting a medal from Nazi military and political leader Hermann Goering, and he proved a vocal supporter of nonamerican intervention in the war. It is against this backdrop that Roth, who died in 2018, formulated his story, seamlessly combining truth and fiction, although he was always clear he wanted to make his book as true to life as possible.
‘To alter the historical reality by making Lindbergh America’s 33rd president while keeping everything else as close to factual truth as I could – that was the job as I saw it,’ he wrote in 2004.
Nor, Roth insisted, did he intend the novel to be a political allegory, although 16 years on, viewers may see his account of a celebrityturned-politician winning the presidency on a platform of popular fearmongering eerily prophetic. That is the view of the show’s co-creator David Simon – the man responsible for the cult series The Wire – who calls it ‘a story of an American dystopia’.
‘It seems startlingly prescient in that it anticipates a politician who seizes upon a simple message and is able to activate the worst fears and impulses of a significant number of Americans,’ he says.
It’s a view echoed by Winona Ryder, who plays Herman Levin’s unmarried, independent-minded sister-in-law Evelyn Finkel. A
Roth fan, she says the modernday parallels of this drama were one of the reasons she was so attracted to the project – and why viewers will be drawn in.
‘The fear of “the other” , what’s happening at the [Us-mexico] border, all of that is so outrageous and I think the last few years have been a mind-boggling nightmare in so many ways,’ she says. ‘Obviously a lot of this has been weighing on all of our minds.’
Kathryn Knight The Plot Against America starts on Tuesday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic. Plus all episodes are available from Tuesday on Now TV and Sky On Demand.
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Rather than being angry that shows bearing a remarkable resemblance to BBC1’S The Repair Shop – such as Channel 4’s Mend It For Money – are popping up all over our screens, its presenter Jay Blades (pictured) says he’s flattered. ‘They might not be able to do it as well as us, but at least they’re giving it a go,’ he explains. ‘And everyone likes a trier.’
nn Macey Chipping is the star of new BBC family drama Mystic, but she almost had the limelight snatched from her – by a crazed pig! The 16-year-old, who plays horse-loving Issie (pictured) in the drama set in New Zealand, says, ‘Gunter is owned by Issie’s grandma and became quite ferocious, at one point trying to eat my feet!’