Russell T. Davies (It’s a Sin, Years & Years, Doctor Who, Queer As Folk), con Helena Bonham Carter As the absolute protagonist, in just three episodes he offers the profile of a star who, at the peak of his career, is forcibly removed from the spotlight. To do this, she uses the tone that the British best use to air her tragedies: comedy. And, despite the fact that Noele Gordon’s professional career seems to be experiencing its last joys, the script for Nolly is supported by certain elements that turn the series into a biopic charming, with charisma and who drinks from the same ingredients that made his famous soap opera succeed. It’s a pity that, unlike Crossroads (which was broadcast for two decades) does not stay in our lives for so long and we only have the opportunity to get closer to his life and character in three acts.
In addition to being a soap opera star, Noele Gordon was a pioneer who revolutionized television culture: she was the first woman to appear on color television, the first woman, as we said at the beginning, to interview a prime minister and the first woman to have your own daily television program. In the first minutes of the series, she gives the impression that her well-deserved status will end up manifesting itself in a tyrannical and despotic attitude toward her peers; However, we soon discover that the star has other attributes to enrich her charisma. “If a man had the same attributes: strong, authoritative, self-confident… would it have posed the same problem and had the same consequences? I doubt it. People are bothered by an indomitable and self-conscious woman. I think the producers of Crossroads “They felt threatened because Nolly was a powerful woman,” explains Bonham Carter to contextualize why a woman with that apparent power within the industry ended up being removed by the show’s producers for no apparent reason. In the end, the series ends up bringing out a establishment dominated by men even though they are the ones who appear on screen and attract the general public with their grace and attractiveness.
Among its other charms, this comedy-drama leaves us to remember the friendship between Nolly and Tony Adams, a co-star in the series, as well as a devoted friend, confidant and occasional driver. This is where fans of camp –and other behind-the-scenes fictions in the world of entertainment– we feel more comforted. Luckily, the hate this time is not directed horizontally (between co-stars, as we tend to see in similar titles like Feud) but shoots upwards: from the actress to the network’s directors. These same people, loaded with prejudices that made them ashamed of the soap opera, thought that getting rid of their protagonist was the quickest way to let the series die. Those months of anguish since Nolly was informed of the end of her participation in the network until what would be her last day of recording, the series remembers them through the most hilarious situations. Every Friday, with the delivery of the scripts, the entire cast set out to discover how they had decided to end it: Not telling the actress how her character was going to end seems, in fact, atrociously cruel.
“She was an incredibly multifaceted woman,” explains Bonham Carter. “I spent a lot of time researching it, because I was afraid of doing it wrong. I read her autobiography, which is very funny, and I talked to all of her friends. (…) she was honest, funny and fierce.” As a Briton, the interpreter herself recognizes that the series awakens a very familiar memory in her even though – due to her age – she did not follow it. “Nolly was like a permanent wallpaper while I was growing up.” In recent years, Bonham Carter has been in charge of bringing iconic women from British history of recent centuries to the small screen. In fact, there is a certain similarity in the looks worn by Nolly and Princess Margaret of England (whom she plays in The Crown): the fur coat, the cigarette. Although, saving her distance, there was no need for blue blood to flow through Noele Gordon’s veins for the British public to crown her as their Queen of the Midlands.
2023-11-13 08:35:33
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