Not My Usual Sunday Afternoon Viewing

Mr. Fixit is still on vacation so today I had time to do something I seldom do. I watched a whole mini-series in one sitting.

My favorite genre of television is British mysteries. The one I chose today was “Five Days,” an HBO film made in association with the BBC and written by Gwyneth Hughes. It was enthralling and disturbing. I won’t sat I enjoyed it. It is quite like the “The Deer Hunter.” It’s not a film you “enjoy.” They are both disturbing movies that touch your emotions in ways that few movies do.

“Five Days” tells the story of a young mother’s murder. There are so many conflicts and changes the characters go through. The victim is white, her husband is black. She has a white daughter from a previous marriage and two mixed race children with her husband. The story details how her death almost destroys everyone concerned--her husband and children, her grandfather, her parents, the perpetrators, a good Samaritan (maybe) who becomes overly involved, and the police officers involved in solving the case.

I have to admit that I cried more than once. There was one scene with her mother (Penelope Wilton) and her father (Edward Woodward) that left me intensely affected. The grandfather said some very unkind things to his daughter. She said, “I only wanted to come first with somebody.” Wow! There must be very few people who live their lives without coming first with someone. It could be a parent, a child, a spouse or a lover. It’s remarkable that there are other people who feel they are forever on the outside looking in. You could see the pain on her face when her father said that she must have been born into the wrong family. It must be devastating to finally admit that you never have and never will “come first.” It was intense for me, to say the least. I suppose people can care about you, but you don’t necessarily come first.

Aside from Mr. Woodward and Ms. Wilton, there were some other outstanding performances. Patrick Malahide, who played Inspector Alleyn in a series based on Ngaio Marsh’s books, was excellent. As was David Oyelowo in the role of the victim’s husband.

Now I have to find something distracting to get this series out of my head.