Any Human Heart
Ch4, 1/4 Sunday 21 November 9:00pm - 10:45pm William Boyd is in my own little pantheon, so I expect a lot from any adaptation. But luckily Boyd devotees are in safe hands because he's written the screenplay for Any Human Heart himself, and what emerges is a joy: a lush, clever and playful romp through the life of the rakish Logan Mountstuart. We first see him (played by Jim Broadbent) as an ailing old man who seeks out a lifetime's journals and becomes lost in reverie. We jump back to 1926 with young Mountstuart (Sam Claflin) at Oxford University, desperate to lose his virginity and failing miserably, leaving him lost in an exhaustingly onanistic world until his luck changes spectacularly. Matthew Macfadyen then takes over as the older, but still louche and feckless Mountstuart, trying and failing to write The Great Novel, as he makes unsuitable matches and meets famous people (watch for an unrecognisable Gillian Anderson as Wallis Simpson). It's seamless and fun and even though Logan can be unspeakable, he's impossible to despise.
VIDEO Plus+: 45611808
Subtitled, High definition, Audio-described
Cast * Logan Mountstuart (Older) - Jim Broadbent
* Logan Mountstuart (Middle) - Matthew Macfadyen
* Logan Mountstuart (Young) - Sam Claflin
* Freya Deverell - Hayley Atwell
* Gloria Scabius - Kim Cattrall
* Duchess of Windsor - Gillian Anderson
* Duke of Windsor - Tom Hollander
* Ben Leeping (Older) - Ed Stoppard
* Ben Leeping (Young) - James Musgrave
* Peter Scabius (Older) - Samuel West
* Peter Scabius (Young) - Freddie Fox
* Tess Scabius - Holliday Grainger
* Lottie Cassell - Emerald Fennell
* Land Fothergill - Charity Wakefield
* Dr Byrne - Richard Schiff
* Allanah Mountstuart - Natasha Little
* Lionel Mountstuart - Hugh Skinner
* Monday - Lydia Wilson
* Gabrielle Dupetit - Valerie Kaprisky
* Ian Fleming - Tobias Menzies
* John Vivian - Julian Rhind-Tutt
* Cyprien Dieudonne - Stephane Dausse
* Logan Mountstuart (4 years) - Conor Nealon
* Mrs Mountstuart - Flaminia Cinque
* Mr Mountstuart - Ken Bones
* Ernest Hemingway - Julian Ovenden
Directed by: Michael Samuels
Radiotimes
