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Telly addicts

The Child in Time

237 replies

RhiannonOHara · 19/09/2017 15:02

On on Sunday night. Anyone interested?

I haven't read the book but I do like a bit of Cumberbatch.

OP posts:
DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 25/09/2017 20:37

Future son but he also wrote about the boy who wanted to be a fish and he wore a red tee shirt.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 25/09/2017 20:40

Wrt 'getting over it' people deal with grief differently. She didn't look like she'd got over anything imo,just going through the motions. At some point,and it had been 3 years you stop crying even if it's only for a while.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 25/09/2017 20:49

90 mins of her as a sobbing wreck wouldn't make good tellyGrin

millifiori · 25/09/2017 21:22

I'm not sure it works in a contemporary setting. It was written before CCTVs, madeleine McCann, tight school security and mobile phones and internet. So when a child vanished they were just...gone. There wasn't the online presence to keep them alive. And there wasn't the range of securities we take for granted now.

But also, the book is all about time as a slippery dimension, so you gradually get an impression that Kate has just slipped through time, not been taken by a weirdo. If you try to reduce that to a straightforward plot, you lose almost all the subtlety, so it looks at the end as though, 'Oh good, they're having another baby, so that's all right then,' whereas in the book the ending is unbelievably moving.

I thought the acting was good but the adaptation was ridiculous. It needed to be far more confident that it was different from every thriller going, and show the audience that it was about timeslips, rather than trying to tout itself as The Missing feat. Benedict Cumberbatch.

notacooldad · 25/09/2017 23:12

Why did his mate kill himself, was he mentally ill?

Charles didnt kill himself did he?
I thought the "government' killed him. He was aware they were surveiling him because he referred to them as 'the wolves ' when he spotted the car.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 25/09/2017 23:50

Oh really? Why did they kill him then? I must've missed a crucial bit Confused

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 25/09/2017 23:53

I've just googled the study notes,he committed suicide.

verystressedmum · 26/09/2017 00:27

I've just watched it on iplayer - not a bloody clue what was going on.
Love BC though, he was really good in this.

purpleme12 · 26/09/2017 01:38

So glad I'm not the only one who didn't know what was going on.

The scenes that actually had an effect on me (the only ones that did) were the ones about the little girl cos I felt them. So it would have better being about that

Timetogetup0630 · 26/09/2017 04:10

I like Ian McEwan. He goes to the same bookshop as me!
I sobbed my heart out during "Atonement".
And found "Saturday" gripping.
I enjoyed this and will read the book.

notacooldad · 26/09/2017 08:46

Oh, the Charles death!
I thought the government had killed him. They had been spying on him, they didn't like the report he had done. They put a bit of pressure on his friend to report back to them about how he was and the camera panned around to the government minister who gave a knowing look at the funeral service when Cumberbatch ( can't remember the characters name now!) referred to Charles taking his own life.

Clearly I've misunderstood if he had killed himself!
Not surprising, a few other things left me baffled!

ChocolateDoll · 26/09/2017 10:51

Really does piss me off when the producers of shite like this clearly have more fun making up arty ways to 'explore' emotions than anybody can possibly have watching the end result!

SumThucker · 26/09/2017 12:08

Only worth watching for the gorgeous Benedict.

I thought Charles was murdered, there was a conversation with the PM & Home Secretary alluding to him being bumped off basically if he didn't pull himself together.

SirVixofVixHall · 26/09/2017 13:18

I hated "On Chesil Beach". I thought it was just ridiculous, the main female character was totally unbelievable . I didn't hate "The Children Act" as much, but there was still something unconvincing and flat about the female lead character.

woollychimp · 26/09/2017 13:40

I enjoyed it - found it very moving and thought provoking. My DCs are older now but it took me back to times when they disappeared (in supermarket and in a dept store) as small children, luckily only for short time periods.

Before I watched it I decided I would read the book - but when it got to the bit where Charles had reverted to childhood I recalled that actually I have read it Blush

JustDanceAddict · 26/09/2017 17:41

AGree that it didn’t work in modern times. Think they should’ve left it in the 80s.

MrsBotox · 26/09/2017 18:03

Charles Darke killed himself because he felt he'd betrayed his best friend Stephen, a children's author, by writing the Official Childcare handbook thereby allowing the state to control how children should be raised.

hollyisalovelyname · 26/09/2017 18:40

I agree ChocolateDoll

EachandEveryone · 26/09/2017 19:05

Omg the Guardian adored it. You should read the readers comments saying its even better than thr Handmaids Tale.

BrightonBelleCat · 26/09/2017 19:52

I thought Charles was murdered

whatisgoingon1 · 26/09/2017 22:13

The deepest comments and thorough understanding millifiori

MrsBotox · 27/09/2017 07:47

The book is clear that Charles committed suicide. There is a long explanation by his wife of how he struggled with conflicts about wanting to stay a child but having business ambition. He went into the woods in a sulk and basically died of exposure.
It seems the PM or someone close was sexually interested in him
I have struggled with some McEwan novels but really enjoyed this one plus The Nutshell, which is about another child, an embryo who witnesses his mother's infidelity. Funny and very clever. Recommended.

GoldenGumballs · 28/09/2017 12:49

I loved it and found it really moving, it was delicate and deep. Not seen much of BC but he was sublime. Will read the book.

DustyMaiden · 28/09/2017 13:17

I liked it, wasn't confusing. I think it may have been better for not reading the book

BarbaraBitchFace · 28/09/2017 13:54

I liked it. Sobbed at the end when he took Kate's hand.

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