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Writing, by its nature, is a solitary endeavour.
Writing is a lonely business. You shut the door, you set the hourglass, and for two hours nobody else exists. Film and television could not be more different — twenty trades, three hundred people, half of them shouting, the other half asleep on a sound stage at four in the morning. And yet, when it works, the result has a richness no novel can quite match: a face, a score, a silence, a single perfectly held shot.
These eleven are the films and TV shows I keep returning to. Some are masterpieces of writing — The West Wing, Succession, The Apartment.
Some are masterpieces of performance — A Man for All Seasons, House of Cards, The Lives of Others.
Two are French, because nobody on earth does ensemble like the French. One is Indian, because I was outvoted by Ravi Shastri is our podcast, and have come round to his view. One is a sting comedy, one is a Cold War tragedy, and one is the show I have watched so often that I now use it to fall asleep.
A storyteller’s list, with a storyteller’s bias. I have rewatched them all, some multiple times. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Fred Zinneman’s direction is wonderful, but what he also did was pick the most brilliant cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, the superlative Paul Scofield. Even the lesser names like John Hurt – who gives a staggering performance as Baron Rich – went on to be giants.
Do they make films like this anymore? I was asked exactly the same question about politics and politicians, recently. Do they make politicians like Margaret Thatcher, Douglas Hurd and Richard Crossman anymore? I’m a former MP and I couldn’t even name the current Cabinet. That says it all, really.
Mention this film and people always think about Redford and Newman. Yes, they are an untouchable double act – the director, George Roy Hill, had put them together a few years earlier in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – but the man who really makes the whole thing work is Robert Shaw, playing the mob boss, Lonnegan.
I remember going to see this at the cinema and thinking how much fun it was to just sit back and enjoy the humour and the performances. Justifiably, it got nominated for 10 Oscars and won seven of them. There have been a lot of ‘sting’ films made since this came out, but few of them have even come close to this masterpiece.
By far the best TV series I have ever seen. Beautifully written by Aaron Sorkin – one of the most talented screenwriters of all time – and a powerful performance from Martin Sheen as President Jed Bartlet. So powerful that the American public wanted him to run for the actual Presidency!
I watch a lot of political drama and I’m sad to say that most of them get it wrong. You’re sitting on the sofa thinking, “That would never happen in the real world”. But when they get it right, as The West Wing did, it makes for magic telly. Interestingly, I read recently that Tony Blair never missed an episode.
My final session of the working day finishes at 8pm. Most evenings, I will watch an old episode before bed. I have seen every one of the 154 episodes more than once. I now use it the way other people use sleep apps — Sorkin’s dialogue running in the background, my brain switching off, the Bartlet White House humming on. There is no higher praise I can give a piece of writing than this: it is the only television I have ever owned that improves with familiarity.
Fondly remembered for the iconic soundtrack by Vangelis, but of particular interest to me because I was also a sprinter in my younger days. In one sense, you could argue that the story is rather ridiculous because Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Lord Burghley (part-inspiration for Nigel Havers’ character, Lord Lindsay) didn’t compete in the same Olympics. But does that matter?
I actually saw the film with ny best friend, Adrian Metcalfe, who was the leading 400m runner of his day.
I sprinted at Oxford. I was not Harold Abrahams and I was certainly not Eric Liddell, but I knew what it felt like to spend three years training for ten seconds of work. The film gets that exactly right. Adrian (Metcalfe) — who really was that fast — should have got gold, but perhaps we didnt know how to train properly in those days.
As we came out, we looked at each other and said, “Who cares if it’s not factually correct? It’s still the most amazing story!”
Directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder, this is not just a film, but a masterpiece of narrative artistry. Following on from Some Like It Hot, Wilder once again demonstrates his unique genius in the realm of comedy. It made me laugh, it made me cry… and ever eager to watch it many times over.
The film’s brilliance lies not only in its exceptional script and direction, but also in its outstanding ensemble cast. Shirley MacLaine and Jack Kruschen deliver performances worthy of their Oscar nominations, embodying their characters with depth and authenticity. However, it’s Jack Lemmon who truly captivates. His portrayal is a blend of humour and pathos, balancing the film’s comedic elements with its underlying themes of loneliness and moral complexity. For me, he steals the show.
Like the best of Wilder’s work, The Apartment weaves humour with social commentary, exploring corporate culture in a way that is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.
This is based on a play with the same name – literally, Dinner of Fools. A group of fashionable and annoyingly arrogant Parisian businessmen get together for dinner every week, but each guest has to bring along a ‘dullard’ who the other guests can make fun of. You can guess what happens… the snooty businessmen get their comeuppance as cruelty, humour and revenge join hands for a moving finale.
This is a film that could only have been made in France and there is something about French humour that I absolutely adore. It makes me roar with laughter every time I watch it.
Let’s continue the French theme. There was a British version of this released a few years ago (and now a Bollywood version by Banijay), but the French version was the original and remains by far the best. So successful in fact that, by series two, you had all the French A-listers screaming for a cameo: Christophe Lambert, Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno.
If you go back a few decades, film stars used to turn their noses up at TV. It was very much the poor relation. These days, we’re getting stuff on the small screen that’s better than what you can see at the cinema. As a storyteller, the length of TV series, 8-10 hours per series, and multiple series, allows a completely different freedom, and present a totally different challenge to a 2 hour film. I have been told many times over the years that my books are too long for Film. I hope that some of them will find a way onto TV in this new golden age.
Contained some painful moments that were excruciatingly difficult to watch (as there is no one to root for) but, at the same time, it managed to be such fun! A Great all-round cast, again – who would be brave enough to argue with Brian Cox’s Logan Roy? – but it was Kendall who really had the greatest impact.
You could argue that there is an exaggerated quality to a lot of what happens in the show, but I have moved in these circles, sitting around the dinner table with billionaires and their ‘people’. I have met one or two of these deeply unhealthy individuals in real life. Their only concern is usually themselves, and making money, money, money. And damn the consequences.
I have sat with people exactly like Logan Roy. Not many. Three or four, over fifty years. The smell of money is the same in every language, and the way the children flinch around the father is the same in every culture.
Succession is not exaggerated. It is, if anything, gentler than the real thing. The real ones do not even bother to shout.
As the credits rolled, I had to stand and applaud. And I wasn’t the only one.
How often does that happen in the cinema?
The main character is a jobsworth Stasi agent in 1980s East Germany who begins to wonder if he’s doing the right thing. The actor who played him, Ulrich Mühe, is stunning, but his success was overtaken by tragedy. He’d been acting in Germany for nearly 30 years when The Lives of Others finally made him an international star and within 12 months, he died from stomach cancer. He was only 54.
10. HOUSE OF CARDS (British version – 1990)
A frighteningly beautiful performance by Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart.
And having worked with half a dozen Chief Whips in my time, I can tell you that he got it spot on. So much of that authenticity came from the writer, Michael Dobbs, who was part of that political world and would have been familiar with all the Chief Whips of the time. More to the point, he knew what made them tick.
Willie Whitelaw was Margaret Thatcher’s deputy and her enforcer. I watched him work the corridor of the Commons for fifteen years and the most dangerous man in any room was usually Willie.
From outside Parliament, Whitelaw may have come across as a cuddly bear, but he was not the kind of cuddly bear you wanted to get on the wrong side of! He had a smile that suggested he had just remembered something amusing. He had also, by the time he finished smiling, ended your political career.
I beleive Michael Dobbs based Urquhart on him. He has never quite confirmed it. He doesn’t need to.
My books have been adapted for stage, screen, and television.
If you’ve enjoyed these films and TV shows, you may want to read the novels behind some of mine.
Kane and Abel was made into a CBS mini-series with Peter Strauss and Sam Neill — and is now in development again with The Jeffrey Archer Company.
Adam & Eve is my new novel, out this October — film rights are already in development.
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less has been on stage, on radio, on television, and is currently in development with Paramount as a TV series. The 50th anniversary edition is out this June – Listen to Chapter 1, or the Radio Play
More from the Unputdownable series.
The 12 Most Inspiring (Auto)biogrpahies for Writers and Leaders
Top 12 Best Classic Novels of All Time
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