Reviews of George Orwell: A Life in Pictures
Observer TV Guide
“An utterly engaging dramatic journey. Award-winning fare.”
The Guardian 16th June 2003
"This was a cracking documentary. With no moving pictures or recordings of his voice, Chris Durlacher’s enjoyable, funny and inventive film took Orwell’s words and put them in the mouth of actor Chris Langham.... He was a perfect Orwell... Such, such a joy."
Radio Times
“Extraordinary and bold profile… It’s a clever idea, and Langham turns in a mesmerising performance as one of this country’s most important ever writers.”
Time Out
“There isn’t a single frame of footage on the man, nor are there any recordings of his voice. However, the people behind this week’s biodoc on Orwell have solved the problem brilliantly, in the process creating a new genre – a fictional programme that pretends to be fact…
What makes the show take flight is the precision of its pastiche. The visual grammar and the syntax of the time are absolutely spot on, down to every last scratch on the film, every hiss, hum and tick on the sound track… A triumph of invention due to necessity.”
Daily Mail
“BBC2 marked {Orwell’s centenary} in great style… With this Orwell, Chris Durlacher may have changed the rules for bio-pics… a wonderful picture of a great writer.”
The Independent
“… suffused with genuine affection and respect for its subject – and it conjured up similar feelings in the viewer. If only half of today’s arts documentaries showed as much originality and inventiveness in their approach, we’d be lucky.”
The Times
“The cleverest set of pastiches we shall see in a long time… It was all so beautifully done that by the end it felt as if the gaunt Old Etonian had been the most filmed and recorded writer of the past century… the programme was a tour de force.”
The Guardian
“A joy from start to finish.”
The Daily Telegraph
“a series of brilliant film pastiches.”
