Things have to be very bad for Helena Bonham Carter to not win a few awards for Nolly. In this miniseries she is Noele, Nolly Gordon, british television star that, after twenty-five years in the soap opera Crossroadses farewell. Forced to reinvent itself or, even worse, forced to retire, Nolly rebels. The three episodes of Nolly, available on Filmin, are more than enough to tell your story. But don’t try it at home: such a compressed format is only available to the great geniuses of television.
Created by Russell T. Davies, Nolly It is classic and canonical television. And, like everything the creator of Years and Years o It’s a Sin, television with intention and depth charge. As he already did in A Very English ScandalDavies takes a historical anecdote and elevates it to the category of universal story. Nolly It is a reflection on talent, power and, obviously, the passage of time. It is also a tribute to television as a crazy and wonderful world. With nods to the very vindictive Scandal on sethis recreations of the filming of Crossroads They are hilarious.
And then there is Helena Bonham Carter. At this point there is no need to explain why this woman is one of the best active actresses. After her recital in The Crownwhere she played a woman, Princess Margaret of England, who He didn’t handle his lack of power very well.in Nolly she embodies another who refuses not to be recognized that she does have it. Flying on a quasi-perfect script, her Noelle Gordon comes to life very quickly. Few television creators present their characters better than Russell T. Davies. He considers that the viewer is intelligent and will know how to decode the symbols and metaphors.
With few but accurate flashes, Davies describes Nolly’s relationship with work, with money and with men. The great speeches (which there are) are reserved for climatic moments. None of this is especially new, but in a television that frequently gets lost in sterile and imposed narrative-aesthetic experiments, it is more appreciated than ever that an author shows how the laws of the script give plenty of room for a lively, efficient and exciting. Few things are more modern than the classic because, as another genius, Miguel Milá, said, “A classic is something that cannot be done better.”“. That goes for both Milá’s lamps and the Russell T. Davies series.
This one, who has more than demonstrated that he knows how to work with non-traditional structures and concepts (there are Years and Years the magnificent and interconnected las Cucumber y Banana), is also proof that a well-written and well-acted story does not need embellishments or pirouettes to shine. Nolly has a great history, a huge leading actress and an author capable of detecting the first and making the most of the second. No more is needed. Although being a genius helps.