Hugh Whitemore adapted William Trevor, an Irish writer noted for Chekhovian short stories; as a novelist he wrote the books on which Fools of Fortune (1990) and Felicia's Journey (1999) were based; this was from a novella published in 'Two Lives'.
Maggie Smith plays a reclusive, rubbish romance writer and alcoholic in Umbria who looks after the survivors of a train explosion. And, as it turns out, has had something of a sordid and unhappy past, so it's not as straightforward as you might think. She's an excellent judge of character and situation.
The survivors are Ronnie Barker - so great to see him in his last and serious role - Benno Fürmann, and Emmy Clarke, who was also in Monk. Tim Spall is the loyal Oirish housekeeper, Giancarlo Giannini the detective and Chris Cooper the repressed uncle.
It was a TV movie made for HBO. Photographed by Marco Pontecorvo and edited by Humphrey Dixon (A Room with a View).
I was thinking about Giancarlo Giannini in Swept Away, and wondering whether that film inspired Overboard. Loncraine and Maggie had worked together before on The Missionary. According to The Guardian obituary, Ronnie "had been at architectural college with Smith’s two brothers and had left them to join her at the Oxford Playhouse".
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