Turning the telly on randomly last night while waiting for my dinner to cook, I managed to catch most of the BBC2 drama Hawking, all about the early years of Stephen Hawking‘s life.
It was fascinating viewing and reminded me very much of A Beautiful Mind, which I didn’t find quite as gripping. Benedict Cumberbatch played Stephen brilliantly and I felt throughout that I never quite knew exactly what was going on in his mind.
It was fascinating viewing and reminded me very much of A Beautiful Mind, which I didn’t find quite as gripping. Benedict Cumberbatch played Stephen brilliantly and I felt throughout that I never quite knew exactly what was going on in his mind.
I flicked over to BBC4 quickly after the programme to watch ‘Stephen Hawking: Profile’ but was disappointed – this 30-minute program on the man’s entire life felt as though it didn’t even scratch the surface, especially when compared with the 90-minute drama that I had just watched.
I’m still persevering with BBC4 – it’s one of the reasons that I bought a Freeview decoder in the first place – but I guess that I just don’t watch enough of it to catch enough good programmes.
Finally! I found someone who agrees that, although both movies present a similar setup, “Hawking” is way better than “A Beautiful Mind.”
A splice of the review i wrote online days after watching the BBC film: “‘Hawking’ is perhaps even better than commercially released ‘A Beautiful Mind’–with the latter only having star power to show against the style, subtlety, wit and impressive acting from this poignant British production.”