Jonny Lee Miller is to play John Major in Series Five of the Crown. In the 1990s, when Major was prime minister, Miller got his big break as Sick Boy in Danny Boyle’s iconic film, Trainspotting. So it looks like a counterintuitive piece of casting. The dour and insipid Major will be played by an actor who achieved fame as a jobless heroin-addict.
When Major entered Number 10 in November 1990 he seemed like a bank of cold grey fog after the storms and excitements of the Thatcher years. But his image as a boring bean-counter is inaccurate. The real life John Major is attractively masculine. Though not exactly a pin-up, he has a strong jaw and a shapely, symmetrical face. He’s tall and stockily built (he was a sportsman in his youth), and there’s a definite twinkle in his eye. But his true persona never came across on TV and he wasn’t able to share his sense of fun with the public. The comic Geoff Norton tells a story about Major visiting his old school Rutlish in south London, during the 1990s. The distinguished former pupil spoke at assembly and gave the boys the benefit of his wisdom. He asked them not to concentrate in class, not to finish their homework and not to pass their exams. ‘I didn’t bother with any of that and look – I’m prime minister.’ The kids loved this performance. The headmaster wasn’t so impressed.
Major’s adversary, Tony Blair, has been played on screen several times by Michael Sheen. The Welsh maestro manages to capture the essence of Blair which is somehow concentrated in his eyes. A blend of eagerness and calculation, an elusive and energetic slipperiness.
Major’s predecessor, Mrs Thatcher, was recently played by Clare Bloomer in Michael MacManus’s play, Maggie and Ted, which enjoyed a short run at the Garrick.
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