This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2015) |
Capital | |
---|---|
Based on | Capital by John Lanchester |
Written by | Peter Bowker |
Directed by | Euros Lyn |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | Dru Masters |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 [1] |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | Matt Strevens |
Cinematography | Zac Nicholson |
Editor | Emma Hulme |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | Kudos |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One (HD) |
Release | 24 November – 8 December 2015 |
Capital is a three-part British television adaptation of John Lanchester's novel Capital . The series was written by Peter Bowker, directed by Euros Lyn and produced by Matt Strevens for Kudos Film & Television Company. [2] [3] The story centres on the residents of a road in South London as the value of each house in the street is approaching £2 million. They all begin to receive repeated postcards with the message "We want what you have". [4] The first episode was broadcast on BBC One on 24 November 2015. [5]
The central characters all have a connection to Pepys Road, a fictional street (although there are two actual Pepys Roads in South London — namely in Raynes Park and New Cross) in an unidentified south London suburb. The houses in the street were once ordinary family homes in an unremarkable residential district, but thanks to London’s ever-increasing property values they are now properties worth millions. Their residents include those such as wealthy banker Roger Yount (played by Toby Jones) who have recently bought their homes, as well as people who have lived in the street since before its houses became so valuable, such as elderly widow Petunia Howe (played by Gemma Jones) who moved there as a young bride. They all start to receive postcards saying "We want what you have", which some residents interpret as a threat, but which others initially ignore.
Describing how he became involved with the production, writer Peter Bowker said, "I was already reading Capital when Derek Wax (Executive Producer), who I've worked with before, sent me it. It hadn't occurred to me that it could be adapted because so much of it is people's internal dialogue and thoughts, so I thought the challenge of that would be intriguing. I've admired John Lanchester's writing as an economist so to begin with I was just excited to meet him! Then the more I read the book the more I thought it was similar to Dickens, both in terms of catching a moment of time and how the big decisions filter in to everyday life. If you start with the people at the bottom, who absorb the impact of those decisions, there's something dramatic there. So that's how it started." [6]
Main Cast
Recurring Cast
Reviewing the first episode in UK newspaper The Guardian , Sam Wollaston began by asking "How much of a city of 8.5 million can you get into one south London street? Capital (BBC1), adapted from John Lanchester's novel, manages a lot". He added that "[…] Lanchester – and in turn Peter Bowker and Euros Lyn, who have adapted and directed so excellently – have managed to squeeze an incredible amount into one street, one book, and then further squeeze into three hours of television. A lot of the important stuff, as well as what is most wonderful and most terrible about the place". Wollaston found the episode's evocation of life in a London street to be "instantly recognizable" and concluded, "It's not just a brilliant allegorical portrait of London. There are stories to tell, the postcards keep coming […] We're heading for a crash, big bang, meltdown". [8]
In The Daily Telegraph , Ben Lawrence gave the opening episode four out of five stars. He began his review by noting that he had found the novel on which it is based "[…] a disappointment. This was no Dickensian bird’s-eye view, but an overly schematic tangle of under-developed plotlines populated by underwritten characters". By contrast, he thought the television adaptation showed "an eternal London, riven by inequality and quickened by diversity". He was particularly impressed by the cast, writing "[…] it’s the acting that makes this production sing. There was not a bad performance among the large ensemble cast and each brought something very different". He praised Toby Jones' "fine line in quiet desperation" as banker Roger Yount, and Rachael Stirling’s portrayal of his wife Arabella, but judged that "The standout performances came from Gemma Jones, as pensioner Petunia Howe, a working-class Londoner who had become an accidental millionaire by sitting steadily in her Edwardian terraced house and Wunmi Mosaku as Quentina Mkfesi, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker working illegally as a traffic warden and facing deportation. Both actresses ably captured the loneliness of London life". [9]
Writing in The Independent , Daisy Wyatt decided that, "Fans of John Lanchester's best-selling novel Capital will be pleased with the BBC adaptation starring Toby Jones and Lesley Sharp. Not only does the three-part drama revisit such brilliantly painted characters, it does so with admirable faithfulness". However, she felt that "[…] for viewers unfamiliar with the book, it may not have quite enough intrigue to keep them coming back for more", but concluded overall, "That said, the drama is a pleasing adaptation that brings life to lovable characters, with strong performances from the ensemble cast". [10]
Ben Dowell, writing in Radio Times described Capital as a "sparkling and hugely relevant new drama". He found that, "This is for the most part a very believable London (except for the summery trees bedecked with leaves during a scene purporting to be Christmas). It shows Londoners trying to work out very real problems. It’s a world where people who think they lead very separate lives are shown to be very connected – often without wanting it" before concluding that, "[…] as you expect from Bowker (writer of the Bafta-winning Marvellous ), there is a fierce intelligence at work here, a script which asks some very interesting and important questions but doesn’t force the answers down your throat". [11]
In November 2016, Capital won the best TV movie/mini series award at the 44th International Emmy Awards. [12]
Arabella Helen Weir is a Scottish comedian, actress and writer. She played roles in the comedy series The Fast Show and Posh Nosh, and has written several books, including Does My Bum Look Big in This? Weir has also written for The Independent and The Guardian and the latter's Weekend magazine.
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), the Bridget Jones series (2001–2016), the Harry Potter series (2002–2011), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), and Ammonite (2020).
Rachael Atlanta Stirling is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Laurence Olivier Award for her stage work. She played Nancy Astley in the BBC drama Tipping the Velvet, and Millie in the ITV series The Bletchley Circle. She has also guest starred in Lewis and one episode of Doctor Who, co-starring with her mother Diana Rigg.
Kudos is a British film and television production company. It has produced television series for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Amazon and Netflix and its productions include Tin Star, Humans, Broadchurch, The Tunnel, Grantchester, Apple Tree Yard, Utopia,Spooks (US:MI5), Hustle and Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. In 2007 it was voted Best Independent Production Company by Broadcast magazine. Formed in 1992, since 2007 it has been part of the Shine Group. In 2007 it also set up the film unit, Kudos Pictures. In 2011, the Shine Group was 100% acquired by News Corporation and was part of the 50-50 joint-venture Endemol Shine Group. On 3 July 2020, France-based Banijay bought the studio through former's acquisition of Endemol Shine Group.
Roger William Allam is a British actor, who has performed on stage, in film, on television and radio.
Sarah Anne Akers, known professionally as Suranne Jones, is an English actress and producer. Known for her numerous collaborations with screenwriter Sally Wainwright, she rose to prominence playing Karen McDonald on ITV's Coronation Street between 2000 and 2004. Upon leaving, she furthered her television career in drama series such as Vincent (2005–2006), Strictly Confidential (2006), Harley Street (2008), and Unforgiven (2009).
Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.
Christopher Larkin Stephens, known professionally as Chris Larkin, is an English actor.
Moses Jones is a British television crime drama series first broadcast on BBC Two in February 2009. The series was written by Joe Penhall, directed by Michael Offer and produced by Cameron Roach. The series follows DI Moses Jones, a Scotland Yard detective who is seconded onto an enquiry investigating a mutilated body found floating in the Thames. The complete series was released on DVD on 9 March 2009.
Peter Bowker is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the television serials Blackpool (2004), a musical drama about a shady casino owner in the north of England; Occupation (2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq; Capital (2015), an Emmy award-winning drama about real-estate bubbles in South London; and The A Word (2016), an adaptation of Keren Margalit's Israeli drama Yellow Peppers about a family raising an autistic child. In 2007, he adapted Blackpool for CBS as Viva Laughlin.
Adeel Akhtar is a British actor. In 2017, he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role in Murdered by My Father. He was also nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role on Channel 4's Utopia, as well as a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ali & Ava. Akhtar received critical acclaim for his performance in BBC One's Sherwood, receiving the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is a two-time nominee for Outstanding Supporting Performance at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards for his role in Sweet Tooth, winning in 2023.
"Nuclear Strike" is the series seven finale and 64th episode of the British espionage television series Spooks. It was originally broadcast on BBC One on 8 December 2008. The episode was written by Neil Cross, and directed by Sam Miller. In the episode, Tiresias, the Russian equivalent of Sugarhorse, awakens a sleeper agent to detonate a nuclear suitcase bomb in central London. The Section D team use Connie James, an FSB mole who helped set up Tiresias, to help them stop the bomb. However, the team find themselves targeted by an FSB kill squad, who are unaware of the bomb threat.
Robert Emms is a British film, stage and television actor, known for portraying Pythagoras in the BBC One fantasy-adventure series Atlantis, and Leonid Toptunov in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl.
Levi David Addai is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning Damilola, Our Loved Boy, the critically acclaimed Youngers and his stage plays 93.2FM and Oxford Street.
Capital (ISBN 9780571234622) is a novel by John Lanchester, published by Faber and Faber in 2012. The novel is set in London prior to and during the 2008 financial crisis, jumping between December 2007, April 2008, and August 2008. The title refers both to London as the capital city of the United Kingdom, and to financial capital. All of the main characters have a connection to Pepys Road, a street in the south London suburb of Clapham.
Kamal Ahmed is a British journalist, who was Editorial Director of BBC News. He was Economics Editor at the BBC until November 2018, and Business Editor from March 2014, until Simon Jack was appointed as his successor in February 2016.
Marvellous is a 90-minute British drama television film first broadcast on BBC Two on 25 September 2014. Directed by Julian Farino and written by Peter Bowker, it is about the life of Neil Baldwin from Westlands, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
Neil "Nello" Baldwin BEM is an honorary graduate of Keele University from Westlands in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. He is a registered clown and also worked for Stoke City Football Club, for whom he once played briefly in a friendly match. He is the subject of an award-winning BBC television drama, Marvellous, which was broadcast in 2014, and a play of the same name which was performed in London's West End in 2022.
Derek Wax is a British television executive producer. His work includes The Rig, The Sixth Commandment, Sex Traffic, Occupation, The Hour,Troy: Fall of a City,Capital,Humans, Lip Service, Tsunami: The Aftermath and From There to Here. He was a producer at Granada TV from 2001 to 2005 and an Executive Producer at Kudos from 2005 to 2017.
Sweetness in the Belly is a 2019 drama film directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, based on the novel of the same name by Camilla Gibb.