Gideon's Daughter

Quite gripping stuff.


The network airing of "Gideon's Daughter"   February 27, 2006
Christian Edward Hilton (England)
3 out of 8 found this review helpful

I had not planned any television viewing, nor when watching the story had I expected to be taken along with the storyline - however, before long I was settled before the screen wishing for commercial breaks only because I needed a drink and admittedly now did not want to miss anything.... Having said that, I feel I will be getting this title upon availability - I became enthralled and in no way perturbed or mis-directed by a cast of well known faces.
The story seen as a family affair with the familiar intrusion of work - here on a grand scale as the character Gideon is a wealthy magnate - is enthralling, Gideon's daughter Natasha has her story told as it is throughout by the character played by Robert Lyndsay, narrating to an agency temp and with parallels in his own life, the seamless blend of plot and narration with such heart-wrenching moments as would crush any caring parent is enough to pen a review, buy the dvd and watch it again and again - it is inspirational and draws from real news footage making it a study along a factual historical sequence of events..., it is a highly personable outing and for those who would have to know what to prepare for - I would suggest settling in for an intriguing tale expecting to find feelings they hold dear tuning in with them to fully appreciate the emotional content. It does not twist or turn or buck and sway but tells the story with affection and leaves the viewer wanting to know their part, feeling somewhat embroiled as one would expect when the news footage recalls events we are all familiar with...

Quite gripping stuff.


Marvelous   March 10, 2007
Paul Bjorkstedt (Sweden)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Just a beautiful film about what we human beings take for granted and what really matters. This film was recently presented to a swedish audience and I'm so grateful for that cause I truly believe my life is the richer for it.


Pointless   May 20, 2008
lexo1941 (Dublin, Ireland)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

When Gideon's Daughter was first broadcast, one of the newspaper reviewers described it cruelly but accurately as a story about a guy who thinks that there's something wrong with his daughter, but she turns out to be fine.

Somehow, Stephen Poliakoff has emerged from the back of the field to become British television's most commissioned, most prestigious and incidentally most expensive television writer. This is an impressive feat for someone who can't devise dramatic (or even halfway plausible) stories, who can't write dialogue that even faintly resembles the way human beings speak, and who has absolutely no visible sense of humour. How he did it, I'm not sure. One reason is that most of the great British television dramatists are either dead, retired or out of the loop, so Poliakoff rises to the top by default, just because he's been doing it longer than most.

I watched Gideon's Daughter with initial scepticism, having patiently sat through its companion piece, the preposterous Friends and Crocodiles, in the thwarted hope that I might finally understand why Stephen Poliakoff still gets commissioned. My scepticism turned to disbelief and anger as it dawned on me and my viewing companions that the story was going absolutely nowhere, and that fine actors of the quality of Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt were being wasted in a half-written piece of pretentious tosh.

This DVD has two stars, and they belong to the actors. But when you put good actors in a bad story, you end up with a bad film. Poliakoff's reputation is a mystery to me and literally everyone I know who has watched his stuff. Writers such as Paul Abbott, Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have more talent in their memory sticks than Poliakoff has displayed over the course of a long and depressing career. Among the dead and inactive, writers like Dennis Potter, Troy Kennedy Martin and Roy Minton all wrote greater things than Poliakoff has ever attempted. But somebody up there (in the BBC, that is) must like him.

If you love his stuff, what can I say? You'll probably love this too. Good luck to you.