There can be no doubt that the most overlooked and underappreciated TV program of 2007 was the HBO Films production "Longford," starring Jim Broadbent as an eccentric but highly conscientious member of the British House of Lords in the 1960s and '70s, who befriended Myra Hindley, the woman involved in Britain's most notorious murder case, in response to the call of Christ to visit the prisoner.
Now that "Longford" has finally gotten its due, no one much paid attention. It took home three Golden Globe Awards last night, most of any TV program and outshining even AMC's "Mad Men," easily the best new series of the year.
Unfortunately, the HFPA's solid choices were largely ignored because the writers' strike forced the cancellation of a Golden Globes gala (I can't believe I'm defending it, either) and thus, ironically, one of the best written things I saw all year collected its loot at a press conference.
"Longford" is largely about the long, intimate, and very complicated relationship between Hindley, played by Samantha Morton, and Longford. The screenplay's author Peter Morgan — you may recall a couple of his other little projects, "The Last King of Scotland" and "The Queen" — did a fine job.
I remember seeing the movie "Amazing Grace" in movie theatres at about the same time "Longford" was playing on HBO. And I remember what a contrast there was between the impeccably upright, James Dobson-approved caricature of William Wilberforce played by Ioan Gruffudd in "Amazing Grace" — and the emotionally conflicted yet undeniably courageous character of Longford, who put his reputation on the line to defend someone so routinely called a "monster" in the press and in public that it was hard to imagine anyone humanizing her. Rent it this weekend.
