Dec 1, 2020
Villains: Commander (1.3, LWT, 1972)
"You've spoiled him. You've let him believe it, you've not said anything to him! And you've given him everything he ever wanted."
"Miss Griggs... Where our, uh, nearest and dearest are concerned, we sometimes have to decide whether to give them everything - or nothing."
#Villains#LWT#classic tv#1972#andrew brown#Robert Holles#Derek Bennett#Michael Culver#Barbara Leigh Hunt#john welsh#Noel Hood#Rosamund Greenwood#Reginald Barratt#Joseph Greig#Cy Town#Audrey Searle#Constance Carling#David Billa#A very different beast to the two preceeding episodes. This where the idea of having not just an ensemble cast but an ensemble of writers#And directors comes into its own: it allows for a real variety of styles and stories while still retaining that common thread. Culver's#Refined ex naval type (or so it appears) is still a thief like David Daker and Martin Shaw's characters but he's a completely different#Man too. His world (and thus this episode) are much more insular and much more concerned with the internal mechanisms of the human mind#(a very neat touch making his character an engineer...). This would work just as well as a single play in the style of Armchair Theatre#With barely any changes needed; a sad bleak story of a profoundly unhappy and unwell person whose vulnerabilities and antagonisms have#Become blurred to the point where you're not entirely sure whether to hate him or to pity him. Leigh Hunt is fantastic as the love interest#Whose own personality is so changed between their current meeting and the flashbacks which make up the majority of the episode. Slowly the#Ep draws out exactly what there was between them and how things changed and finally provides the background to justify her final action#In the episode. Culver of course is brilliant; it's a tough line to walk in a role like this but he manages to keep just enough audience#Sympathy from going full villain. A glum moody but excellent bit of drama. Certainly the best episode so far. I have a Culver fan mutual#I think? @bunn1cula is it you? Have you seen this one?