TV Review: A Poet in New York


“I am such a disappointment, to everyone it seems. Of course”

Just a quickie for this as it was far too brilliant a piece of television to let slide without comment. Written by Andrew Davies and directed by Aisling Walsh, the focus is the final few months of Dylan Thomas’ life where his alcohol abuse is putting both his health and career at risk during a trip to New York intended to culminate in a meeting with Stravinsky to discuss a collaboration. Whilst staying in a Chelsea hotel, he delves back into his mind’s eye to revisit key moments of his life to desperately try and find something to cling onto. 

Tom Hollander is sensational as the booze-sodden Thomas, tragically crushed by the addiction he can’t kick but yet so movingly eloquent when reciting his poetry, which Davies makes great use of throughout the screenplay, and remembering the relationships with his ailing father, and with wife (Essie Davis) and child in Wales, which stimulated such great art from him. Phoebe Fox matches him though as assistant and lover Liz, along with Ewen Bremmer as his long-suffering agent, their efforts to keep him afloat almost unbearably poignant as he pushes them away.

The film looks gorgeous too, Martin Fuhrer blends period and contemporary viewpoints into a gorgeous mixture that feels timeless and Adam Tomlinson’s art direction likewise unconstrained by a slavish attention to detail which has a liberating effect which in turn feels more authentic for the way in which it breathes. At barely 70 minutes long, I could have watched something twice the length but its conciseness just adds to the charm and acts as a reminder of the brutally short life of one of our greatest poets.


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