Lennon Naked

I've only seen a very few really well produced and thoughtfully written docudrama's. And very rarely have I ever seen a really decent one made for television. The only excecption to that was a biop titled Not Only... But Always which starred Rhys Ifans very believably as Peter Cook.

Recently I saw on PBS that they were going to be showing the latest in a long line of docudrama's about the Beatles titled Lennon Naked which stars Christopher Eccleston in the title role as John Lennon.

I like Christopher Eccleston as an actor. At a young age he greatly impressed me with a very deep and emotional performance as a simple-minded teen sentenced to death row in Let Him Have It. Even at a young age he really held his own in that movie.

I've only seen a few clips of him as John Lennon in this upcoming production and I'm not particularly taken by his performance. I don't think his acting is bad. I just don't believe him to be John Lennon.


I guess I'm too fussy when it comes to details. For me Christopher Eccleston is too tall and too old for me to believe him to be John Lennon. Who was in his late 20's when this movie was supposedly taking place. Even with the long hair and glasses, his features are too severe.

And even though Paul, George and Ringo are incidental characters in this particular story. Why can't these productions find actors who look and sound closer? It just annoys me to listen to Paul talking in the press conference scene and hear him sounding like one of the Gumbies from Monty Python!!

The only time they ever seemed to get the casting as far as the Beatles are concerned is the movie Backbeat. Both Ian Hart and Gary Bakewell were excellent as John Lennon and Paul McCartney. To be honest, I think it's been the only time the casting has been spot on.

I'll probably end up watching it this coming Sunday. But from what I've seen thus far. I can't say I'm terribly impressed.