Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Marc Evans
Written by Tom Bullough & Josh Hyams
Music by John Hardy

Theatrical release: April 2025

BBC One TV Film
First broadcast 10 November 2025
Available on iPlayer
120 minutes

CAST:
Harry Lawtey- Richard Jenkins (Burton)
Toby Jones – P.H. Burton
Lesley Manville- Ma Smith
Aimee-Ffion Edwards – Cis, Richard’s sister
Steffan Rhodri- Dic Jenkins, Richard’s father
Aneurin Barnard – Elfed, Cis’s husband
Hannah New- Daphne Rye, casting director
Matthew Gravelle- Sir Cyril Cooke

The film release got little attention, and the BBC are showing it to celebrate Richard Burton’s 100th Anniversary. It follows on from the success of the The Motive & The Cue (linked) on stage in 2023, starring Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton, Mark Gattis as John Gielgud and Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor. That’s Burton at his peak. In Superhero comic terms, Mr Burton is instead the Origin Issue.

It starts in Port Talbot in 1942, where Ritchie Jenkins (Harry Lawtey) is a mildly stroppy schoolboy. He lives with his sister, Cis and her miner husband. His father is an alcoholic with ten other kids and hardly recognises Ritchie. His schoolteacher, Mr Burton (Toby Jones), takes an interest in the young Jenkins (age seventeen). His brother-in-law insists he leave school and get a job. Ritchie does, and Mr Burton sees him working at the Co-op haberdashers … in South Wales then working for the Co-op had the cachet of Harrods in London. My Welsh grandma told me if I studied hard I might be able to work for the Co-op, or even (sharp intake of breath) the Post Office.

Mr Burton has been staying with the same landlady, Ma Smith (Lesley Manville) for fifteen years. She still addresses him as Mr Burton. He addresses her as Ma. He has written plays for BBC Wales radio and has even been to America on a six month acting scholarship. The War Office has kept him in teaching for the war. He runs a drama group at the YMCA and persuades Ritchie to come along. He excels as a convict, and later stars in Pygmalion. Ritchie wants to be an actor, and Mr Burton first gets him re-admitted to school, then takes him up to the hills (in Wales they’d say mountains) to learn to project and speak with clarity. This is all good stuff on projection and voice control, and aspirates and vowel sounds. The story develops, and the unhappy Ritchie is invited to take the spare room next to Mr Burton at Ma Smiths.

The tutoring continues, and Mr Burton (now he can be called ‘PH’ by Ritchie) believes that Ritchie can get to Oxford on an RAF scholarship. There is a problem, in that the names differ, they’re male and live in the same house. It is suggested that PH adopts Ritchie so they will then share a surname. This needs clearing with the drunken dad, who wants fifty quid to sign the papers (that’s around £3000 equivalent for 2025). This is the point where the dad tells Ritchie ‘I always knew you were a pooftah.’ Ritchie has heard lads suggesting the same. His girlfriend has complained that Ritchie never makes a physical move. Ritchie gets blind drunk, and storms out of Ma Smith’s house to try and prove himself with the girl.

We fast forward to an audition with a smart Ritchie in RAF uniform, and the casting director is impressed. Then it’s an eight year leap to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. The SFX show the Royal Shakespeare Theatre as it was in the 1950s, and the interior, and the proscenium stage as it used to be when I first saw a play there. Brilliant reconstruction, and I reckon AI effects not set building. Richard Burton (as he now is) is a drunk, and can’t accept direction (this ties up strongly with The Motive & The Cue). In panic at night he phones PH after eight years absence. PH and Ma come to Stratford. There is a major bust up, which is then resolved.

Themes. Three stand out for me. Voice, and regional accents. Potential sexuality. Burton’s personality as an actor.

Ritchie is getting old-fashioned elocution lessons. He adopts an RP (Received Pronunciation) speaking voice. While it was a stunning performance overall, I don’t think Harry Lawtey captured the adult voice of Richard. It sounded mannered and forced, with Richard didn’t. On the other hand, though he is no lookalike, in the adult 50s scenes he looks more and more like Richard Burton. Richard also retained a Welsh tinge. But then Richard had one of the great speaking voices. Accent is a major interest. We wrote one of the first British ELT courses which insisted on having regional accents on the audio tapes. When we did American editions we were the first to insist on Southern, African-American, Hispanic, California and Boston accents as well as ‘Mid West Newsreader’ which all American ESL courses used. Personal history repeated: my mum came to Bournemouth from South Wales at 15 to work as a chambermaid in the depression. The manageress persuaded her that if she moderated her accent she could move to waiting on tables. If she lost it she could get her dream job working in ladies fashion at a department store. She lost it. Her younger sister joined the army in 1939, and was rapidly promoted to sergeant. In London, the then Princess Elizabeth was assigned to learn from her unit. Auntie Iris wanted to be an officer. She learned the Queen’s actual accent. She made it and she ended the war as an officer. She never lost her acquired Advanced RP accent. Kenneth Branagh has described arriving in England from Belfast and being made to take elocution lessons because no one could understand him. Karen followed the same route from Belfast to England, was laughed at, and made to do strict discipline elocution lessons. Just like Burton, that was the suggestion of her school teacher, who then taught her acting, and we continued to visit her until she died. The result for both was acting. Now for me an actor must be able to code switch. Take David Tennant and James McAvoy. I’ve seen both on stage and film with English accents. Put them on a TV chat show, and the dial goes right up on their Scottish accents. I’d say this is being themselves. Similarly, Lorraine Kelly’s Scottish accent was stronger on Desert Island Discs than it is to my memory on breakfast TV. It’s a necessary skill. It’s one Sean Connery never acquired so parts had to be rewritten to make whichever character Scottish.

I have doubts about the amount of Welsh Richard and family slip in and out of in 1942 Port Talbot. I suspect that’s a modern nod to Welsh language.

Sexuality. People assume PH’s interest is sexual. PH was aware of this, and Toby Jones steers a fine line. Yes, maybe somewhere at root it is, but this is not a person who would ever let it develop. Ritchie thinks it is, but who knows? The man is an educator. I assume anyone involved in drama must have encountered gay teachers and gay directors. We’ve both been taught by people who certainly were, but they never made any advances on us. As a gay teacher friend said, just look at the statistics. There are way more problems with heterosexual teachers and their students than homosexual ones. PH has removed himself from sexual life. A great moment is the resolution where Richard gives him a massive hug. PH is hugely embarrassed, and Richard says ‘Can’t a man hug his dad?’

Richard Burton as an actor. The last scenes concur with the Motive & The Cue. Richard was extremely bad at taking direction. He was a serious alcoholic. He was not a team player. He was one of those who would push through to the centre on curtain calls. He was an acting genius. I worked with a director who trod the boards with Richard at Stratford in the early 50s. He told some tales and I wish I could recall them all. The one that stood out was matinees. Richard would drink several pints at lunchtime, and put on his armour for the play. He would be making a major speech, and the smell then the puddle at his feet revealed that he was pissing while speaking. No understudy ever wanted to wear Richard’s armour. Anyway, I love his work. Always have.

FROM my Motive & The Cue review: ASIDE

I have slept in Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s bed. No, they were not present. We were filming in Oxford, and the cast and crew were staying at The Bear Hotel in Woodstock. After the first week, I went home for the weekend, and on the Sunday drove back to Woodstock late for an early Monday morning call. We had something at home, a child’s party. I didn’t leave Bournemouth till after 9 pm and got to The Bear well after 11 p.m, nearer midnight. I was shown to my room. The bed was rumpled, and a used condom was on the floor. At least a knot had been tied in it. Thoughtful. I sensed the receptionist was about to have a fit. She explained that ‘staff members’ must have decided I was a no-show and that they could make use of the room. ‘We’re absolutely full,’ she said, ‘I only have the Taylor-Burton suite.’ She said this had been their regular trysting place over a long period, and was a two storey cottage in the car park. It was rarely in use because it was so expensive, not that I would be charged the difference. I was escorted to it and kept it for the week. It was good for meetings with producer, director and camera operator, and drinks with the cast too, The cast were amazed that the scriptwriter had been awarded such luxurious accommodation. ‘The value of the scriptwriter has been truly recognised at last,’ I said.

LINKS
The Motive & The Cue

TOBY JONES
The English (TV Series)
Uncle Vanya
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, 2018
Dad’s Army, 2016 (FILM)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (FILM) (2011)

LESLEY MANVILLE
Misbehaviour (film)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill, Wyndhams, London, 2018
Another Year, by Mike Leigh (FILM)
Mr Turner (FILM)
World On Fire (TV Series)

HARRY LAWTEY
The Country Wife, Chichester 2018

STEFFAN RHODRI
Woyzek, The Old Vic 2017
A Mad World My Masters, RSC 2013

AIMEE FFION ANDREWS
Blithe Spirit (film)