Lord Longford

Things have been tense lately. Mr VE is languishing in Peru for two-and-a-half weeks; the MA is taking its toll; work takes up too much of my valuable time; and to top it off, I spent 90 minutes hurling heavy weights around the gym last night (grr). So what better way to relax than with a spot of knitting and a two-hour TV fest about child murderer Myra Hindley and ertswhile do-gooder Lord Longford? And that's exactly what I found myself doing last night.

Jim Broadbent, who stepped in as Lord Longford, is one of my favourite actors. It has long been a source of amusement to my family and live-in lover that I have always had a thing for older men: Terry Wogan, Geoffrey Palmer, Michael Parkinson, Jim Broadbent etc. (My live-in lover finds this all particularly amusing as he himself is 15 years my senior). But I digress.

Yes, Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent is one of my favourite actors. It's hard to believe he is only 57 as he has been around so long. And he is so amazingly versatile. He takes on controversial characters and brings them to life, without putting too much of himself in there. In short, he does a damn fine job as an actor - recognising that acting is about being someone other than yourself, a fact many Sylvia Young graduates would do well to remember.

Twice-Oscar-nominated Samantha Morton as Myra Hindley was also very, very convincing. Samantha is another stirling actress and a huge credit to the British acting world. I found myself sympathising for Myra and then suddenly feeling shocked about how this had crept up on me - in exactly the same way as Lady Longford was stunned to find herself sympathising with a woman she had previously described as an evil child killer.

Sadly, it is not very often that TV produces a one-off drama of this calibre. But when it does happen, it's is truly worth the wait.