"Five Days" (2007) TV mini-series

Directors:

Otto Bathurst
Simon Curtis

Writer:

Gwyneth Hughes (writer)

Release Date:

2 October 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

What if everything you loved vanished in broad daylight?

Plot:

A five-part miniseries that revolves around the disappearance of a young mother in a quiet British suburb and the circumstances that leave her children abandoned far from home.

Plot Keywords:

Disappearance | Car | Police | Missing | Investigation

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 9 nominations

Cast

Nila Aalia	...	Shanti
Doug Allen	...	Gary Machin
Nikki Amuka-Bird	...	PC Simone Farnes
Tom Andrews	...	Reporter 1
Tyler Anthony	...	Rosie Wellings
Tessa Bell-Briggs	...	Market Trader (as Tessa Bell Briggs)
Michelle Bonnard	...	Defne 'Tops' Topcu
Hugh Bonneville	...	DSI Iain Barclay
Charlie Creed-Miles	...	DC Stephen 'Jim' Beam
Patrick Cremin	...	Oscar One
Nichola Dame Hartwell	...	Older Stylist
Timothy Davies	...	Magistrate
Philip Davis	...	Mic Danes
David Doyle	...	Petrol Attendant
Lucinda Dryzek	...	Tanya Wellings
Christopher Fairbank	...	DS Curling
Vincent Franklin	...	Rawdon Hull
Ruth Gemmell	...	Dr. Tobolska
Kenneth Hadley	...	Derek the Neighbour
Richard Harrington	...	Daf Parry
Joyce Henderson	...	Security Guard
Joanna Horton	...	Danielle Miller
Rory Kinnear	...	Kyle Betts
Margot Leicester	...	Hazel Betts
Patrick Malahide	...	John Poole
Caroline Martin	...	Emma Opie
Lee Massey	...	Ethan Wellings
Janet McTeer	...	DS Amy Foster
James Mellor	...	Press Officer
Jenny Ogilvie	...	Bravo 2
Patrick O'Kane	...	DI Laverty
David Oyelowo	...	Matt Wellings
Mark Penfold	...	Kyle's Solicitor
Gary Powell	...	Jogging Man
Craig Purnell	...	Reporter 2
San Shella	...	DC Nawaz
Sarah Smart	...	Sarah Wheeler
Charlotte Spencer	...	Jaime
Lauren Taylor	...	Stylist
Christine Tremarco	...	Leanne Wellings
Harriet Walter	...	ACC Jenny Griffin
Jason Watkins	...	Francis Cross
Al Weaver	...	Josh Fairley
Penelope Wilton	...	Barbara Poole
Edward Woodward	...	Victor Marsham

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

A few scenes, including the ending, are being re-shot for the US release.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the scene where Hugh Bonneville checks out the VW transporter van, the production office vehicle and livery, plus the silver Mercedes sound van and sound engineer are clearly visible.

Movie Connections:

Spin off "Hunter" (2008)

Five Hours

This is a very engrossing BBC-TV mini-series which is loosely based upon a mysterious disappearance of a young mother, but the series is really more of a study of the assorted characters in the story, which lasts for five hours. It is thus very much an ensemble piece, where the wide variety of brilliant British actors and actresses can show off their talents. The actual characters portrayed are really 'the kind of people one does not normally meet', people so boring and nondescript that it is difficult to admire them. For instance, the lead character is a young husband (the one whose wife disappears) who has no job and no apparent interest in finding any. He lives off handouts from his parents-in-law. He was once in the Army but does not appear to have the slightest flicker of any ambition or any interests in life apart from doting on his small family. He is played by David Oyelowo, who is brilliant at the part, coming across as a totally sympathetic person, although his only activities for five hours are loving and grieving, which he does superbly, so that one wants to comfort him, as he is so obviously a nice guy. The standout performance of the whole series is unquestionably Penelope Wilton, who acts circles round everyone else in the story. She is simply incredible. She portrays a very unsympathetic woman, indeed the only character in the story who is all too familiar to everyone, namely an irrational, hysterical, self-centred, dense, querulous, blindly loving and blindly hating, elderly idiot-woman. Alas, alas, we know them too well. Wilton is one of Britain's finest actresses (see my review of her in 'Half Broken Things'). She takes a character who could have been two-dimensional and makes her four-dimensional. She is wonderfully supported by old pro Patrick Malahide, who plays her exasperated husband, and the pair of them set a high standard indeed for all the younger players. Janet McTeer, a spectacular actress when younger, has become a much less sympathetic type of person now that she is older, has coarsened in some way, and puts one off, but she redeems herself in the latter stages of the story by showing how brilliant an actress she can be when she has a chance by pulling off one of the most convincing and original drunk scenes I have ever seen on film. The big surprise is the enigmatic character Sarah, played with great depth and originality by actress Sarah Smart. She takes a character who could have been insufferably tedious and by sheer acting magic turns her into a deeply mysterious and intriguing person, about whom we wonder tirelessly for the entire five hours. She is so good at it that we end up wondering about Sarah Smart, frankly. I guess that's what happens when you really do your job properly, that people wonder where the character ends and the actress begins, if she knows herself, that is, and many do not. She has some deeply unnerving tricks with her eyes, which wobble and let us know she is unhinged, but we are not sure how or why, though we eventually learn that she had an extremely violent and traumatic childhood. Her mastery of ambiguous facial expressions is extraordinary. Rory Kinnear is amazingly convincing as an apparently hopeless fellow who lives with his mum and isn't up to much, but who turns out to have hidden depths. (I suppose most people have hidden depths, but do we want to plumb them, that is the question.) His mum is played very well indeed by Margot Leicester. A superb performance is given by Lucinda Dryzek, who plays a snotty, revolting teenage girl of the sort we all dread to meet, but who at crucial moments collapses in helpless tears and turns out to be pathetic, with all her arrogance just a pose. Three other children are also very good, Lucinda's friend, and her younger half-brother and half-sister. The younger siblings may be very dim indeed as characters in the story (they seem unable to say anything particularly articulate, being hopeless witnesses to the disappearance), with little to recommend them but their sweet natures, but that is conveyed to wonderful effect by Lee Massey as the boy and Tyler Anthony as the girl. Harriet Walter has a small role, but we do not get to see much of her, which is a shame, as she is such a fine actress that she was wasted here. One could go on, but one must draw a line somewhere. The series manages to be strangely fascinating because of the depth of portrayal of all these essentially uninteresting people caught up in a web of intense anxiety and suspense.