My Favorite Tom Wilkinson Performance

A serviceable Pecksniff

We had no sooner gotten wind of the death of Maurice Hines and were mulling some sort of comment on the sad event (and–Ye Gods–its 20 years since we lost Gregory) than the news arrived that Tom Wilkinson has passed at the relatively young age (nowadays) of 75.

I have seen and liked this RADA grad in a LOT: In the Name of the Father (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Full Monty (1997), Wilde (1997), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1997), Ride with the Devil (1998), The Patriot (2000), The Gathering Storm (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), A Good Woman (2004), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Cassandra’s Dream (2007), Michael Clayton (2007), Valkyrie (2008), John Adams (2008), Burke and Hare (2010), The Conspirator (2011), The Kennedys (2011), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Selma(2014), as well as appearances on shows like Inspector Morse,Lovejoy, and Prime Suspect, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch.

But there was one, most unlikely, performance I caught that I believe will forever be my favorite. I’ve contemplated writing about it ever since I saw it, since I loved it so well, but could never settle on an appropriate time to do so. This is very much the appropriate occasion, however. And this is a rare occasion where I want to share especially because I bet few have seen it. The performance was in the BBC’s 1994 miniseries adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit.

Now, you already know my viewing preferences are nerdy from that list in the paragraph above which purposefully omits such things as Batman Begins and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. And I happen to have read all of Dickens’ novels, so I knew Martin Chuzzlewit and would never be inclined to reject watching a screen version on the basis of unfamiliarity. Still, I’m not sure I ever would have PRIORITIZED such a show under ordinary circumstances. But I had COVID, you see, so I was lying there binging a lot of television. It wasn’t like it was a job of work to make myself sit there and watch the thing like medicine I had to take. I was lying there like the Cardiff Giant, saw that it existed, and thought I’d give it a go.

Now, it’s quite possible that the illness made me specially receptive, more sensitive, or whatever, but I genuinely came away from this series thinking it was the best screen adaptation of Dickens I had ever seen. Faithful to the book, but SO well acted. In addition to Wilkinson, it has Paul Scofield as old Martin (and, spoiler alert, his twin brother), Pete Postlethwaite as Tigg Montague, no less an eminence than John Mills as Mr. Chuffey, Julia Sawalha (Saphy from Absolutely Fabulous) as Mercy, and Ben Walden as a very intense and brooding young Martin.

But Wilkinson, as Pecksniff, the villain of the piece just absolutely knocked my socks off. The character is a hypocritical schemer, a latter day courtier, a transparent Iago, by turns hilarious and hissable. So great was the depth of his performance in the part that I sometimes found myself rooting for him, which is unthinkable, he’s too awful. But like all the best actors, he did just enough. He never wins you over completely, he just occasionally conveys his own side of things. He wants what he wants so badly, you kind of don’t want to see him disappointed. But then you come to your senses. Obviously, Dickens’ writing is very good, so the layers are there to be found, though as in a lot of writing of the time, the levels are more implicit than explicit. An actor DOES have to find them. Wilkinson really earned his pay in this performance in this minor, quiet forgotten, BBC series. But that’s what the good ones do. We’ll miss that old workhorse.

Now, as this is likely to be our final memoriam to a recently departed soul for 2023, I thought it might be worth your while to look back at some of the other folks who passed this year to whom we paid tribute. The obits section of Travalanche is here, with Tom Wilkinson now its latest entry.