The Government Inspector (2005) (TV)

Director:

Peter Kosminsky

Writer:

Peter Kosminsky

Release Date:

17 March 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Mark Rylance	...	Dr. David Kelly
Jonathan Cake	...	Alastair Campbell
Emma Fielding	...	Susan Watts
Daniel Ryan	...	Andrew Gilligan
Geraldine Alexander	...	Janice Kelly
Georgina Rylance	...	Rachel Kelly
James Larkin	...	Tony Blair
Julian Wadham	...	Jonathan Powell
Pip Torrens	...	John Scarlett
Philip Bowen	...	Sir Kevin Tebbit
Barnaby Kay	...	Tom Kelly
Tom Beard	...	Godric Smith
Darren Morfitt	...	Daniel Pruce
Martin Maynard	...	Paul Hammill
Geoffrey Freshwater	...	Andrew MacKinlay
Shaughan Seymour	...	Richard Ottaway
James Aubrey	...	David Chidgey
Jasper Jacob	...	Greg Pope
Jay Villiers	...	Geoff Hoon
Jonathan Aris	...	Bryan Wells
Patrick Pearson	...	Patrick Lamb
Richard Huw	...	Richard Hatfield
Dominic Jephcott	...	Martin Howard
Celia Robertson	...	Kate Wilson
Peter Forbes	...	Wing Commander John Clark
Michael Cochrane	...	Sir Richard Dearlove
Richard Hope	...	Richard Sambrook
Ben Miles	...	Kevin Marsh
Kate Miles	...	Miranda Holt
Alex Reid	...	Claire
David Prosho	...	Steve Haws (as Dave Prosho)
Howard Ward	...	Mark Ridsdale
William Armstrong	...	Carl Klein
Sasha Behar	...	Nan
Kayvan Novak	...	Qasim Hamdani
Suzanna Nour	...	Dr. Rihab Taha al Azawi
Younes Megri	...	General Amin
Basel Al-Jibouri	...	Interpreter
Nigel Hastings	...	Nick Radford
Bill Stewart	...	Barry Trent
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joy Brook	...	Alison Blackshaw (uncredited)
Antony Byrne	...	Mark Damazer (uncredited)
Sam Dale	...	John Humphrys (uncredited)
Richard Howard	...	Donald Anderson (uncredited)
Stewart Howson	...	Fabian Hamilton (uncredited)
Stephanie Langton	...	Ellen Kelly (uncredited)
Stuart Nurse	...	Jack Straw (uncredited)
Ed Pearce	...	Weapons Inspector (uncredited)
John Peters	...	Bill Olner (uncredited)
Jeff Peterson	...	US Marine Officer (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Kosminsky

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Kosminsky

Produced by
David Aukin	....	executive producer
Simon Chinn	....	co-producer
Jonathan Curling	....	producer
Julia Stannard	....	line producer

Original Music by
Jocelyn Pook

Cinematography by
David Higgs

Film Editing by
David Blackmore
Josh Cunliffe

Casting by
Marcia Gresham

Production Design by
Claire Kenny

Art Direction by
Henry Jaworski
Niall Moroney

Costume Design by
Justine Luxton

Production Management
Majid Aoulad Abdellah	....	unit manager
Finlay Bradbury	....	unit manager (as Finlay Pile)
Alex Sutherland	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tussy Facchin	....	additional third assistant director
Ben Howard	....	second assistant director
Nic Jeune	....	first assistant director
Tom Rye	....	third assistant director

Art Department
Rob Anderson	....	construction coordinator
Marshall Aver	....	buyer
Caroline Barclay	....	stand-by art director
Abdenabi Izlaguen	....	property master

Sound Department
Simon Clark	....	sound recordist
Jason Devlin	....	boom operator
Peter Gates	....	sound editor
Graham Headicar	....	sound effects editor
Stuart Hilliker	....	dubbing mixer
Stuart Hilliker	....	sound re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Andy Bell	....	electrician
Camilla Drennan	....	camera trainee
Dan Fontaine	....	gaffer
Gary Parnham	....	additional electrician
Steve Pugh	....	grip
Laurie Sparham	....	still photographer
Erin Stevens	....	clapper loader

Other crew
Rachel Donkor	....	production accountant
Zoë Edwards	....	assistant production coordinator
James Grant	....	location manager
Ali James	....	assistant location manager
Sarah Lindfield	....	production runner
Nick Oliver	....	location scout
Susannah Price	....	researcher
Jayne Spooner	....	script supervisor (2005)
Katherine Tibbetts	....	production coordinator
William Willson	....	researcher
Will Yates	....	researcher

Production Companies

• Arte France (in association with)
• Mentorn Television
• Stonehenge Films (in association with)

Distributors

• Channel 4 Television Corporation (2005) (UK) (TV)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2006) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Casting Collective  extras casting
• Compuhire  computer and video playback
• Pepper Post Production  post-production

Runtime:

UK:125 min (including commercials) | Finland:109 min (excluding commercials)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Arte France

Quotes:

Dr. David Kelly:I don't think I will ever return to Iraq. Except as a tourist...

Biased to one opinion of course but still well delivered and depressingly tragic on several levels

After the 11th September 2001 the War Against Terror is preparing to move on to Iraq. The UN have sent in the weapons inspectors to find if Saddam has indeed Weapons of Mass Destruction and the political machines in both the UK and US are working to present the strongest possible case for war in the face of (in the UK) very vocal opposition from the public. With the dossiers released and the threat established the "need for war" is set and, on the 19th March 2003, the coalition forces invade Iraq. As the bombs fall, the political fall out back in the UK begins – a dossier released by Number 10 is revealed to be mostly lifted from a 12 year old PhD thesis and there are rumours that the dossiers have been "sexed up" and exaggerated by Alistair Campbell's communications team without the support of the intelligence community.

Regardless of your opinion of the war on terror or the war in Iraq, it is hard to ignore the fact that there was clearly spin put on the case for war, with dossiers exaggerated (the 45 minute claim), suspicions presented as fact (there was definitely WMD?) and an urgency to get into Iraq that really should never be the case when it comes to war – god help us that we should never see elected officials acting with such apparent blood lust again. After George Bush announced the Iraqi conflict over (nice call George), the political backlash began – lead mostly by the media and the BBC, who, I suspect, felt a bit aggrieved about being used and dominated by Campbell's team. Among all the stories and sources was David Kelly, who was put on the record by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan as saying that caveats in the "45 minute" dossier had been removed, the dossier spiced up and the 45 minute claim just plain wrong. It is hard to think of the story because, personally, I believe it and, now that the search for WMD has been given up as a bad job, it is depressing to think that Kelly was the only political casualty when really large sections of the government should have resigned at very best.

In capturing the shameful history behind the war, this film does well to build the story even though it had limited or no access to political records and the Kelly family. The film is biased of course but it still is interesting and convincing in the way it does it; the flashbacks were a bit annoying at first but then I released that they were being used to show us that, since 1990, Kelly had believed WMDs were in Iraq and, even on his return in 2003 he truly believed tat he would find them – he was not some liberal out to bring down Labour; in other words, he simply told the truth. Outside of the political condemnation the film plays very well as a tragedy – the vast majority of us know how it ends (clue: the "bad" guys win) and it is consistently depressing to watch the machine crush one man; it is depressing to watch because I know it will make no difference, thousands are dead, the goal posts have been shifted (now it was regime change) and it will simply go down in history as a war with a scandal and a few reports clearing everyone involved of whatever they wanted to be cleared of.

The cast are mixed but the most important performance is well delivered by RADA actor Rylance; his Kelly is polite, precise, naïve, trusting and ultimately trapped, bewildered and betrayed. Throughout the film he is convincingly human and, although I'm not sure if this is really the person he was in reality it is still a very good performance. Cake's Campbell is typically gruff and aggressive but then I suppose this is actually a pretty fair representation of him from what we have seen. Larkin's Blair though is stupidly simplistic (strumming his guitar) though luckily he is only a bit player. Support is good though from Ryan, Alexander, Fielding and others.

Overall this is a really condemning film that deserves to be seen. Naturally it is biased but it is hard to quibble with the basic facts presented here – it is a tragic film that is depressing because we already know the outcome and the fact that Hutton basically "whitewashed" the Government of all blame and put it all on the BBC. For many of us, the whole War on Terror is a unstoppable force that respect neither law nor fact and basically will do as it wants – this film only confirms that and, in doing so, it is depressing and the fact that it focuses so well on the central, reluctant character of Kelly makes it depressing and tragic.