Boris Johnson

2022 - 9 - 20

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Sky News"

This England tv drama on Boris Johnson's premiership - will he ... (Sky News)

This England, starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson and Ophelia Lovibond as Carrie, airs on Sky Atlantic on Wednesday 28 September.

But we tried to keep it as accurate and as detailed as possible," he added. Lovibond told Sky News she tried to avoid news of real events: "Someone would leave a newspaper on set, and I would tell myself, 'Oh I shouldn't read that because it's going to be something I don't know yet'. I had never been in a situation playing a character like this before." We got their first-hand accounts." Actress Ophelia Lovibond admitted to Sky News: "She of course does know what she's talking about because of her background within the political sphere, as to whether or not she should have been giving it is the bigger question." Ophelia Lovibond who plays Carrie Johnson admitted to Sky News that she rarely saw Kenneth Branagh out of his "Boris costume" and it was "uncanny looking at him".

Boris Johnson and Covid dramatised in This England: 'People might ... (Financial Times)

Michael Winterbottom discusses his new Sky series, which stars Kenneth Branagh as the former prime minister.

[Purchase a Print subscription for 11,12 € per week You will be billed 107,91 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_uk3m?segmentId=461cfe95-f454-6e0b-9f7b-0800950bef25&utm_us=JJIBAX&utm_eu=WWIBEAX&utm_ca=JJIBAZ&utm_as=FIBAZ&ft-content-uuid=b9bca18e-13e2-4685-a785-0f3c6fed5c40) [Purchase a Digital subscription for 6,64 € per week You will be billed 39 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_digital?ft-content-uuid=b9bca18e-13e2-4685-a785-0f3c6fed5c40) [Purchase a Trial subscription for 1 € for 4 weeks You will be billed 65 € per month after the trial ends](/signup?offerId=41218b9e-c8ae-c934-43ad-71b13fcb4465&ft-content-uuid=b9bca18e-13e2-4685-a785-0f3c6fed5c40)

Boris Johnson may "not be flattered" by This England (RTE.ie)

Director Michael Winterbottom has said he does not think Boris Johnson will be "flattered" by his portrayal in his new series, This England, ...

And I think the thing we wanted to avoid was caricaturing Boris or making it a sort of slapstick or satire. "And also, in terms of performance that does make it hard to replicate without feeling that you're sort of doing an impression. I mean, I don't think he will be flattered, but I hope he will watch it and see it's certainly not an attack on him. I think Ken did a great job of it. I think with Boris there's a sense, I guess, like any public figure, that they have a public persona. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.

Michael Winterbottom on Boris Johnson, Covid-19 and his new TV ... (New Statesman)

The director explains why he wanted to make a series about the pandemic “now, as soon as possible after it happened”.

“Most of the individual stories we have of patients are versions of stories people told us,” he explained, and described the process of collating individual pandemic experiences as the “most satisfying” part. One of the few things he has a strong opinion on is the show’s title. This England focuses on the early months of the pandemic – beginning with reports of a strange new “Wuhan flu” and ending on the bombshell revelations of Dominic Cummings’s rule-breaking trip to Durham. Still, he insisted that “what I definitely was not trying to do was take a general idea about what I think about England and impose it on the pandemic – the opposite”. The range of genres and topics is dizzying: from science fiction (Code 46) to sexually explicit romance (9 Songs). “We weren’t trying to do a comedy or make fun of him.” If anything, Winterbottom seems to have some sympathy for Johnson, whose lockdown life in No 10 the director sees as “pretty suffocating, pretty depressing. “There was this shared experience,” he said, comparing the nationwide Covid restrictions with the limitations of war-time Britain. This England punctures such delusions of grandeur: as Covid cases rise, Johnson recites overblown, irrelevant speeches yet can’t find the words to tell his adult children about his and Carrie’s imminent baby, and refuses to clean up after his untrained dog Dilyn. Due to air on Sky Atlantic at the end of this month, it is directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Kenneth Branagh as Winterbottom told me he was approached about the project in June 2020 – just as Britain was coming out of the first lockdown. The UK is in the middle of an inflation crisis caused in part by the lockdowns, and we have a new prime minister after a succession of scandals brought down the last one. Speaking via Zoom from an airy room of his house in London, the director explains his rationale for wanting to capture this moment now.

Johnson may not be flattered by his portrayal in This England, says director (South Wales Argus)

Carrie (Ophelia Lovibond) and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Sir Kenneth Branagh) in This England (Sky UK/PA). Director Michael Winterbottom has said he does not think Boris Johnson will be “flattered” by his portrayal in his new series, ...